A Year of Festivals

Freaky, mad and wonderful stuff going on in the world to keep you inspired on your travels.

April - Queen's Day, Netherlands

NETHERLANDS | Tuesday, 3 March 2009 | Views [314]

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dates: 30 April (if 30 April is a Sunday it’s celebrated on 29 April)

Level of Participation: 5 – go mad in the streets of Amsterdam
Description: Birthday celebrations for queens are supposed to involve tea and polite conversation, but the Dutch like to give their queen a more rollicking party. This nationwide holiday honours Queen Beatrix (though it’s held on the birth date of her mother Queen Juliana) and in Amsterdam in particular it’s a crazy, wonderful madhouse celebration. There’s a free market throughout the city (anyone can sell anything they like), street parties, live music, dense crowds and lots of beer. The canals fill with boats and the streets with people, who come from all around the country and beyond. The entire city is given over to partying, so that it’s a rambling, disorganised, exhilarating day in the city streets, which are all but turned orange as people wear anything and everything in that colour. This is less because it’s the national colour than the fact that the Queen’s royal lineage goes back to William of Orange. Happy birthday, ma’am.

Essentials: Do as the Amsterdammers do and cover yourself head to toe in orange.

Local Attractions: Chill out with a cruise through Amsterdam’s canals, and take in a bizarre cornucopia of museums, from Anne Frank’s House to van Gogh to a torture museum, sex museum and the inevitable tulip museum.

More Info: Amsterdam Tourism & Convention Board (www.amsterdamtourist.nl)