Kings Day 26th of April
Kings Day celebrates the birthday of the Dutch King of the Netherlands and is supposed to be a day of national unity and “togetherness” (Dutch: saamhorigheid). The tradition started on the 31st of August
1885, on the birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, later Queen Wilhelmina. Since 1949, after the accession of Queen Juliana, Queen's Day is Queen Juliana's birthday on April 30th. This year the Dutch celebrate Kings Day for the first time since King
Willem-Alexander has been inaugurated in 2013. The Kings birthday is actually on the 27th of April but since the 27th is Sunday the celebrations have been moved to the 26th of April.
On Kings Day, you will see:
- a fair on the Market Square;
- brass bands playing;
- street musicians;
- other live music on stages;
- fireworks in the evening;
- jumble sale in the streets;
- loads of red, white, blue (national flag)
and orange (national colour) everywhere!
But most of all, you will find thousands and thousands of people in the town centre celebrating the King’s birthday. Walking around, sitting on side walk cafes, drinking beer or an ‘orange bitter’ and having fun.
Kings Night
The night before Kings Day, Kings Night is celebrated. Simply started to warm up for Kings Day, it has now become a celebration on its own. Many (inter)national artists are
looking forward to the event that starts earlier almost every
year. Around 14:00 hours the first stage opens up and you can dance the night away right into Kings Day! On the station square the annual Station Dance will start at 19.00 o’clock.
King Town Jazz & Soul Festival
King Town Jazz & Soul is the newest of festivals in the Apeldoorn area. It is a yearly music festival in Apeldoorn. Every year during the last weekend of May a variety of bands plays live music on several stages in the city center. Jazz in the Woods is free, and therefore nearly 60.000 people attend this event. In the past, the bands which have played at King Town Jazz & Soul were Jazz bands, but nowadays you can also hear pop, blues, hip-hop, reggae, big band and other music styles. The event lasts for around 3 days.
(Music) Festivals in the Netherlands
Around Whitesunday / Pentecost (Pinksteren in Dutch) the festival season opens up with Pinkpop. Throughout the summer you can join Lowlands (3 days), Dancevalley, Mysteryland, Festival Mundial, Indian Summer Festival, Rock Werter (Belgium) and many more, spread all over the country. A special festival is the one on May 4th and 5th. After World War II, May 4th became Remembrance Day, with a national two-minute silence at 20:00 hours. On May 5th the Dutch celebrate their freedom. Due to its important role during the liberation of the Netherlands, the city of Wageningen is well-known for its major Freedom Festival. But also other cities like Zwolle organise big festivals around these days.
(Music) Festivals in Apeldoorn
Every year several outdoor festivals take place on the market square in the city centre. Dancetour and Summerloverz are the two biggest and well-known festivals. Summerloverz usually takes place in July.
Willy’s Cafe
Tired of studying or working and feel like you need to unwind and relax with a nice drink and some great food? Most of your fellow students decide to do this at Willy’s. This cafe in the centre of Apeldoorn offers great music and friendly staff to ensure you feel welcome there. During major events such as the World Cup they will have screens on which to view it from. Willy’s is open from Wednesday to Sunday and is located on the Hoofdstraat 169 Apeldoorn. For more information and pictures feel free to visit there facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/willlysapeldoorn
Visit our open market
Although most cities in the Netherlands have their own market(s), many people think that Apeldoorn is THE market town in the country. There are several markets on every weekday on different places. The main market is on Saturday on the market square and has a couple of hundred market vendors. The Saturday market
has a lot of food stands with vegetables, fruit, cheese, eggs, fish and meat. Flower- and plant booths are common to.
Monday market, also on the market square, counts more fabric booths. The others are much smaller and located in the suburbs. Whilst visiting the market (especially on Saturdays) it’s a tradition to eat fish from one of the stands. Dutch specialty is
‘haring’, which is fresh raw fish. With some onions it is a real treat and very Old Dutch tradition! Also nice are 'lekkerbekje' or 'kibbeling' (fried cod).
Create your own bike tour
In the Netherlands there are twice as many bicycles as there are people! Cycling tracks are routed and well-kept across the entire country. Quite recently the majority of the bicycle intersections are systematically numbered into a complete network. This network allows you to create your own route by simply following the numbers. You can either get a map at the Tourist Information (VVV) or check one of the maps on the site of the road or the internet. Simply write down the numbers of the route you want to cycle and off you go!
“Knooppunten” as the network of intersections is called, covers part of the Veluwe as well, which is a very nice area to bike around: www.fietsroutenetwerkveluwe.nl. Besides this network, there are also signposted bike-tours (for instance “Oranjeroute”
in and around Apeldoorn). For an overview of cycling possibilities, please visit the Tourist Information (VVV) or an ANWB shop. They sell the network maps as well as pre-routed cycling tracks. On the internet you can find an interactive map of the cycling network: http://www.fietsersbond.net/fietsrouteplanner/fietsroutes-gelderland/knooppunten/