Over 1,000 break world speed date record on Valentine's Day

BRUSSELS: In dating, they say there are plenty more fish in the sea.

For 1,363 speed daters meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, the bigger the sea, the better the chances of catching something.

Organiser Dare to Date billed the Valentine's Day event as the world's biggest ever speed date, saying it smashed the previous record of 964 participants set in Dublin, Ireland, in 2019.

In a cavernous repurposed warehouse filled with rows of tables and disco music, participants circulated every four minutes meeting on average 16 people during the evening.

Dare to Date, which specialises in speed dates, split those signed up into groups by age and sexual orientation but apart from that they were not screened - which is what many participants said made it better than internet dating.

"I think it's much more natural than Tinder," Tiffany Guerenne, 29, said. "Speed dating is really cool because there are so many different people and they're maybe people we wouldn't have said 'yes' to on Tinder."

Dare to Date event manager Jill de Graaf said it was time to reclaim Valentine's Day for singles.

"It's the day of love but also I'm single and I know all of my friends in couples are all doing something and it can be a pretty sad day for singles, but we're just taking it back," she said.