King’s day (Koninginnedag & Koningsnacht)- Formerly Queens Day

What: Koninginnedag or King’s Day is the Dutch annu­al nation­al cel­e­bra­tion of the King’s birth­day, where every­thing great about the Nether­lands is cel­e­brat­ed.

The cel­e­bra­tions start the night before on Kon­ingsnacht with feasts and beer, with the events of Koninginnedag in Ams­ter­dam kick­ing off at 6am with a series of free mar­kets where Dutch peo­ple hag­gle away unwant­ed items for lit­tle fees. Fol­lowed quick­ly with a series of con­certs, par­ties and the con­sump­tion of tra­di­tion­al Dutch food and orange bit­ter, a Dutch beer asso­ci­at­ed with the Dutch roy­al fam­i­ly, with the icon­ic Ams­ter­dam canals fill­ing up with par­ty boats and rev­ellers wear­ing the Dutch colours of Orange .

When:  King’s day takes place every year on the 27^th of April (or on the 26th if the 27^th is a Sun­day), as a cel­e­bra­tion of the Kings birth­day. For main cities the par­ties and cel­e­bra­tion will begin on the night of the 26^th known as the Kon­ingsnacht, allow­ing atten­dees to get a head start on cel­e­bra­tions.

Where: King’s day is cel­e­brat­ed all over the Nether­lands, but for a memo­r­i­al expe­ri­ence head to Ams­ter­dam to enjoy the par­ties, mar­kets, con­certs, beer and the cities icon­ic canals which will quick­ly fill up with boats con­tain­ing cel­e­brat­ing locals.

Dura­tion: Kon­ings­dag lasts for one full day, while Kon­ingsnacht takes place from dusk the night before.

Tick­ets: While King’s day in Ams­ter­dam is tick­et­less and free, the 5 main large scale par­ties and dance events, which take place out­side the city cen­tre, are tick­et­ed with access strict­ly con­trolled – while the advice for a more enjoy­able King’s day is to stay in the city, indi­vid­u­als want­i­ng to attend these par­ties will need to pay tick­ets and use pub­lic trans­port only to attend them.

Need to Know: Close to a mil­lion peo­ple attend King’s day in Ams­ter­dam, so expect crowds, crowd con­trol and long wait­ing times, also be aware that no pri­vate trans­port runs in the city cen­tre. Also be sure to wear Orange to make the nation­al colours of the Nether­lands !

More Infor­ma­tion: The Dutch Ams­ter­dam web­site con­tains a fan­tas­tic guide to the best way to cel­e­brate Kings Day in Ams­ter­dam: https://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/78-kings-day-amsterdam#All_of_the_Netherlands_-_Biggest_party_in_Amsterdam