Join The Party!
Each year us Dutchies know how to celebrate our King’s birthday the right way. The whole of our little country is either colored bright orange, our national color, or red, white and blue, the colors of our national flag. Everywhere are festivals, parties, parades, markets and outdoor theaters. The whole nation gets drunk together and dances the day and night away.
King’s Day is celebrated the 27th of April, but starts the night before with King’s Night. Especially Amsterdam is a popular party destination and it’s recommended not to travel on the 27th itself, but rather a day or even a couple of days before if you want to avoid the stream of people trying to get into the city.
Mind you that up until 2014 we used to celebrate our Queen’s birthday on the 30th of April, and a lot of tourist information in other countries is still not updated on this. Funny to still see those tourists being 3 days late dressed in bright orange wondering where the party is:
If you want to attend one of the major events and festivals it’s advised to buy your tickets early, a lot of events aren’t even aloud to sell tickets at the door. These are the best events to check out:
King’s Night Events Amsterdam:
- The luxury W Hotel Amsterdam at Spuistraat 175, is one of our favorite hotspots and they have an amazing King’s Night festival.
- Marcel Dettman King’s Night at De Marktkantine.
- FLOW at the famous Air club near the Rembrandt square.
- Supperclub King’s Night Cruise (yes, it’s on a boat).
King’s Day Festivals Amsterdam:
- Kingsland Festival at the RAI, is one of the biggest festivals around.
- Nassau Festival at the Olympic Stadium area. You’ll find me dancing around here, awesome line up!
- Loveland van Oranje at the meerpark, is also very popular.
- Thuishaven Kingsday at Warehouse.
- Oranjebloesem at blijburg.
- VOLTT Kingsday at the industrial NDSM Dockyard, also one of my favorites.
- The luxury hotel Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht is hosting Be a King But Party Like a Prince
Other King’s Day Events:
- Be aware that the whole city is one great party and you can buy booze just about anywhere. You’ll find loads of small house parties where they simply leave the door open, or streets where the neighbours have put a whole surround sound system in the windows.
- If you’re good at making friends you can even get onto a random boat for a couple of hours. Try not to fall in the water though, it’s pretty dirty;)
- There are a lot of “flea” markets, where people from 1-100 years old sit on carpets and try to sell… well, basically everything.
- Amsterdam is not the only city that knows how to party, also worth visiting are Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Nijmegen.
KLM gives a pretty good impression of the festivities, and even they know it: “Nothing compares to King’s Day in Amsterdam”! See you there!
