King’s Day, Amsterdam 2015.

You haven’t quite been to a party until you’ve been to what the dutch know as Koninginendag..now Koningsdag or King’s Day.

It’s the one day in the year you can sell your stuff, buy stuff, party and paint the town orange…literally. This huge Orange fest celebrates the House of Orange-Nassau, and is a spectacular and really happy holiday for the dutch, held in honour of King Willem Alexander’s birthday on the 27th of April.

For many years since 1949, it was a tradition to celebrate Queen Juliana’s birthday which was on April 30th. It was continued on the same date by Queen Beatrix, her daughter, born in January because the cold wintery weather was deemed unsuitable for outdoorsy festivities.

Though parties are held in towns throughout the Netherlands; the dutch capital Amsterdam takes the cake with the biggest street party, while the Hague is known for Koningsnach or King’s Night with dozens of music performances in the city centre, and Utrecht boasts the biggest flea market in the country.

King Willem-Alexander and his family on a boat in Dordrecht (image courtesy of Spits news)

Of course the birthday King and the rest of the royals make an appearance in different towns each year, as did his predecessors. This year, the King broke the tradition set by his mother and introduced his own. Instead of visiting two towns or villages on King’s Day and partaking in traditional games, the family will now visit one regional centre. The chosen town or city will organise a ‘grand parade’ which the royal family will watch. This year, the royals visited Dordrecht.
Queen Beatrix introduced the visits and informal walk-abouts when she took over the throne, instead of the formal file-pasts at Soestdijk palace introduced by her mother Juliana.

Did you miss Koningsdag this year? No worries…take a peek of some shots taken around Amsterdam, and book the date to celebrate with us on 27th April next year.

Salesmanship, King’s Day 2015

Barbecue season is here, Amsterdam Bijlmer.

King’s Day, Amsterdam 2015.

Selling stuff, King’s Day Amsterdam, 2015

Boat parties, Amsterdam

Me on King’s Day