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Main Content
The Orange Touch
Lang zal zij leven!
Queen’s Day, in the Netherlands is a big celebration by anyone’s standards.
It originally began as a celebration of the Queen’s birthday and people throughout the country mark the public holiday - “Koninginnedag” as it is called in Dutch - with festivals, fairs and open markets in nearly every city. But of course, no city matches Amsterdam’s party. The entire city shut down last Friday and people from across the country took to the streets in festive mode.
The city was an overwhelming sea of orange, and no reveler’s outfit was complete without something orange. Most of those who came to Amsterdam spent the day wandering through crowded streets that had been emptied of bicycles, cars and public transport. All over the city, people picked through open markets looking for second-hand clothes or the perfect deal on a defunct cell phone. Aside from the markets, which are everywhere, people would have spent the rest of the day watching boats full of partygoers along the canals, listening to one of the city’s many free concerts, or simply trying to make it through the crowds without losing their group. The sheer size of the party - engulfing the whole of Amsterdam - ensured that there was enough variety in music, food and entertainment to keep a crowd of this size entertained until the party wound down in the late evening.
The only thing missing? Some link to what the day actually celebrates. Queen’s Day was first celebrated on August 31 1885 to mark the birthday of the then Princess Wilhelmina. After Queen Juliana ascended to the throne in 1945 Queen’s Day was moved to her birthday, April 30. Although the current Queen Beatrix, celebrates her birthday in January, she decided to keep April 30 as Queen’s day to honour her mother, Juliana.
Those in need of a ‘royal’ element to their Queen’s Day celebrations, can follow the royal family who visit small cities in the Netherlands each year. This time their visits struck a more somber note than usual. In addition to visiting Wemeldinge and Middelburg, the Queen, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Princess Maxima attended a private ceremony on April 29 in Apeldoorn to mark the 2009 Queen’s Day attacks. A monument was dedicated to the seven victims who were killed on April 30 2009 when Karst Tates drove his car through crowds at a high speed, only narrowly missing the royals.
The solemn tone of the memorial service and the heavily guarded royal procession through Wemeldinge and Middelburg the following day, were in stark contrast to the festive goings on at Amsterdam. By early evening, partygoers began to slowly leave the city, leaving enormous quantities of rubbish behind them. But despite a street sweepers’ and refuse collectors’ strike on Queen’s Day, somebody was working and the city’s residents woke up to neat and tidy streets the morning after.