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THE PARTY OF THE YEAR
If you are one of those unaware visitors arriving in Amsterdam in the morning of the 30th of April a dn expecting to have a couple of chilling smoky days in the capital of freedom, you will be simply amazed by what you will find just one step out of the central Station.
April 30th for Holland is the day to be there. No matter what job you do, where you live and what you are busy with in life, on that day you must be back home to get a blast off in the most amazing open air party in the world.
Queensday is a celebration of, music, bee, people and most of all of the orange Colour.
The entire country transforms itself in one big open air festival where milions of people put on whatever they have in orange and simply get into the streets to celebrate for 24 hours no stop, and all this doesn’t happen in a park far away from everything, but right in the middle of the streets where people daily cross their lives together.
The party starts the night before, when around 6 pm all the streets start to be filled with people and little stages with local singers surrounded by orange ballons and liters and liters of beers.
People slowly start to fill all the corners. Music gets louder and louder and the more the people fill themselves up with beer the more the party gets into the good vibes.
In the old part of the town people start already to prepare themselves for the day after, that starts very early. On Queensday it’s tradition that people can sell their stuff in the streets without any restriction. And in order to get a spot in the street, some of them go to mark it on the side walks since the previous night, or even sleep there.
So, despite on the 29th the party goes on until late, on the 30th since the early hours of the morning the town is already awake again. Around 6 the sidewalks are already full of people who get all stuff they want to sell on the floor, and you can even see people already awake in search of the bargain of the year.
You can find and buy the most crazy things ever on Queensday: lamps, sofa, dvd, cds, chairs, stereos, clothes shoes, fake hair and much more. And the earlier you get there the more you can find. The entire Jordaan, the old part of Amsterdam, is full of people selling stuff for all morning. Around 10 and 11 all those who were partying hard the previous night are already up in the street to start a new day.
Let the Queensday begin.
The best to do in the morning is indeed have a nice breakfast and go downtown for a walk, get lost along the canals and explore the local streets stalls. Some people refill them from their houses directly. Dutch people go early looking for great deals and it can happen you see them going home with the piece of a furniture on their back or on their bike.
Around noon the atmosphere starts to get hotter and hotter. Food and beer stalls start to appear everywhere, you cannot avoid to be tempted to grab an hamburger on the way, it’s the food of the day.
From the early afternoon the music gets louder, thousands of people start to get in town, the canals get traffic jams, with boats overfilled of people, some of them even with djs on, playing their own music.
The party is ready to explode. Flows of people in orange take pacific control of the street, with only one aim: to enjoy. The atmosphere is great. Everybody has fun. You can dance in the streets, wearing the most crazy orange dress, hats, boas, glasses, crowns you have…and the most amazing thing is that everybody does it… people of all ages, for one great day a year people are really all the same and they share one great party moment.
In the main square of the town there are big concerts, often with famous djs. Crossing those square on Queensday is almost impossible. Same for the narrow streets on the canals: sometimes it can take you one hour to get out of them, people get stacked everywhere and it’s then you start to have conversation with everybody.
It happened to me several times last year that people asked me and my friend to get a picture of us, probably because of the ridiculous mise we had on, with orange cowboy hat, glassed t-shirt crown boa and balloons all at once…what a great way to get famous!
Do not give any appointment to anybody in town on that day, because it’s impossible to find each other and the lines of the mobile works really bad.
Queenday is a day to enjoy like this: simply diving into it and not caring about anything else for 24 hours.
If you arrive to Amsterdam that day knowing anything about Queensday, you may think Holland is the craziest country in the world!
YOU MUST KNOW:
Despite Holland is famous also for the a not very friendly weather, it usually never rain on Queensday!
CURIOSITY:
When I planned my Argentina trip months ago, I changed my plans just to be back in Amsterdam for this! I ‘ll be back just on time! 🙂