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CBC
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Contestants screech for the stars at the European gull screeching championship
Bird lovers from all over Europe gathered at the Belgian coastal town of De Panne on Sunday for the fifth edition of the European Championship Gull Screeching contest, designed to bring some positive press to the oft-maligned creatures. Anna Brynald of Denmark took home the gold.
CBC
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
She felt like life had no meaning — so she started screaming like a gull
Social Sharing Life got you down? Try throwing your head back and screeching like a gull. That's what Anna Brynald did. A personal loss a few years ago inspired the Danish woman to chase her dreams, no matter how silly. So she signed up for the 2025 European Championship Gull Screeching contest, and won gold. "It was so refreshing to meet so many people that just like seagulls, like me," Brynald told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "I like that the seagulls like fries, because I love fries, and they're just a bit misunderstood, like me. And they're cute." WATCH | 2025 European Championship Gull Screeching: Contestants screech for the stars at the European gull screeching championship 36 minutes ago Duration 1:12 Bird lovers from all over Europe gathered at the Belgian coastal town of De Panne on Sunday for the fifth edition of the European Championship Gull Screeching contest, designed to bring some positive press to the oft-maligned creatures. Anna Brynald of Denmark took home the gold. Sunday's competition drew gull lovers from all over Europe to the Belgian coastal town of De Panne. Dressed in gull costumes, 60 participants from 14 countries got on stage at the De Verloren Gernoare café and belched out their best gull imitations in three categories — adult, junior and colony. A jury awarded points based on sound and performance. One contestant did her best gull impression by stopping between squawks to lunge her face into a bag of chips, drawing raucous applause from the crowd. But Brynald — decked out in feathers, bright yellow lipstick and white face paint — squealed and squawked her way to victory in the adult contest. Cooper Wallace, 10, of Chesterfield, England, won the junior category for the second year running, while an Italian group called Partisan Seagulls won the colony category. "The seagull lives everywhere. The seagull can adjust and be resilient and stay in every environment," Italian victor Enrico Pittaluga said. "That should be the goal of humanity always." Brynald says she prepared for the contest by practicing her shockingly high pitch at home, online and in the wild. "I worked with the seagulls. I went to the beach and I looked at many seagulls, and I thought they looked nice. And I screeched at them, but they became scared of me," she said. "Maybe I'm saying something wrong in seagull language. I don't know." If there isn't any meaning in life, that means I can do literally everything I want. I can make seagull sounds, because I don't care. If it sounds ludicrous, that's the point. Brynald says the loss of her best friend two and a half years ago taught her the importance of prioritizing frivolity and fun. "He died, and I got an existential crisis. I couldn't see the meaning in life," she said. "Then I remembered that's the beautiful [thing]. If there isn't any meaning in life, that means I can do literally everything I want. I can make seagull sounds, because I don't care. I [might not be] here tomorrow. I just want to do what's fun and not think about what other people think about me." 'More sympathy for the seagulls' While the event encourages fun, it also has a more serious purpose. Started by comedian Claude Willaert, the European Championship Gull Screeching contest partners with research and conservation organizations to help change the narrative about our fry-eating feathered friends. While gulls may appear plentiful, their populations are, in fact, declining worldwide, driven by a loss of nesting habitats and food. "Some people hate them. They see them like rats of the sea because they can peck open rubbish bags, because they screech a lot, they make a lot of noise, they breed on roofs, and they leave their droppings everywhere," said Jen Seys, president of the jury, and spokesperson for the Flanders Marine Institute. "But the contrast is that these seagulls also belong to the coast. They are an essential part of the sea coast, and their sounds, their calls and their acrobatic behaviour, it's just part of the sea coast. So you need to balance that. We need some more sympathy for the seagulls." Brynald, meanwhile, hopes to be back in Belgium again for next year's contest, if she can scrounge up the travel and hotel fare. Despite her victory, she says she was a little under the weather on Sunday and didn't perform at her best.
New York Times
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
To Win This Contest, Just Squawk Like a Seagull
A chorus of sea gull squawks and screeches could be heard in a seaside Belgian resort town on Sunday — but it was not coming from the birds. Competitors from 13 countries came together in De Panne, Belgium, to see who could produce the most faithful imitation of a gull sound for the fifth annual European Gull Scream Championship. And it was not just sounds: The 70 participants also mimicked gull style in artful costumes. Faux feathers, beaks and claws were spotted at the event, which took place inside a large cafe in De Panne, a small town that borders France. Anna Brynald of Denmark won the adult category, while wearing white-and-yellow face paint and a cap to cover her hair. Her costume included a white feather boa and a cape that mimicked wings. 'I practiced with TikTok and I practiced in front of the mirror and in front of the sea gulls,' Ms. Brynald said in an interview with Reuters. Some competitors also brought props to the event. One contestant stretched her arms to imitate wings while she screeched, then paused her noise making to quickly stick her face inside a snack bag. The competition was organized by Claude Willaert, who has worked as a coastal educator for the province of West Flanders and as an amateur comedian for more than 20 years. He said in an interview on Monday that the event was meant to create a more positive image of sea gulls. There is 'friction' between gulls and people in Belgium, he said. The gulls, he added, were unfairly blamed for problems caused by human behavior. While some people complain that gulls inhabit their spaces, make disruptive noise, and steal their food, he said humans had encouraged this by feeding the birds old bread, storing their trash in easily accessible bags and infringing on the birds' habitats. 'I wanted to make sea gulls sexy again by organizing this event,' Mr. Willaert said. 'They really deserve to have a positive image.' A five-person jury judges the screeches. Each jury member can give up to 15 points for the screech and five points for behavior, for a possible total score of up to 100 points. The jury members include scientists, policymakers and a representative for a local nature association. There are two other categories in the competition: junior, for people 16 years old and under, and colony, for groups. Cooper Wallace, 10, of Chesterfield, England, won the junior category for the second year in a row. His sister, Shelby, 7, made her debut at the competition and placed fourth, according to The Derbyshire Times, a local newspaper in Derbyshire, England. Shelby told the newspaper: 'I was kind of annoyed that I didn't get a medal, but very happy for Cooper.' An Italian group that called itself Gabbiani Partigiani, or Partisan Seagulls, won the colony category. They wore red neckerchiefs and plastic bags stretched over their heads, with holes around their eyes, mouths and noses. The group's members are from an artist collective, Generazione Disagio, and besides bright yellow beaks and claws and a few feathers stuck to their bodies, they wore little else.
