Queensday

30th of April - Queensday. It is the birthday celebration not as you would expect of current Queen Beatrix but of her mother Juliana who was Queen from 1948 till 1980. People are carrying orange rather than the colours of the Dutch flag. It's the same orange well known of football jerseys. Especially in Amsterdam it's just one gigantic party and one can enjoy people in all kinds of dresses one being more crazy than the other. There is a Queen who knows how to party!

Queensnight, the evening before Queensday, bands are playing all over town and masses of people are inhabiting the streets of Amsterdam. Queensday morning the whole city is transformed into a fleemarket. Its allowed for anyone to do buisiness that day so it's a good opportunity for a crazy purchase. In the evening the parties of the previous night are restarted. Before Holland returns to complete normality.

My city of residence shows a certain ignorance towards Queensday, as do they show it to almost all Dutch holidays, therefore we left for Amsterdam and went nuts there. It was an awesome experience comparable with Berlin Carneval of Cultures or Christopher Street Day. It had a slight touch of Carneval but the music was significantly better.