It has been announced that Rotterdam will be the city that will host members of the Dutch Royal Family for the 2023 celebrations of King’s Day.
The Royal House of the Netherlands announced on Monday, 10 October, that the celebrations would be held in the city home to one of Europe’s largest ports, but hasn’t divulged any more information.
It is expected, however, that members of the extended family will also be present, including the King’s brother, Prince Constantijn, and his family.
This isn’t the first time Rotterdam has hosted the celebrations; the last time it happened was in 1992 when the country used to observe Queen’s Day, which fell on 30 April, in memory of Queen Juliana’s birthday.
In 2013, when King Willem-Alexander acceded to the throne, the celebrations were moved three days earlier, on 27 April, the exact date of His Majesty’s birthday.
After two years of restrictions, the celebrations returned in full force for 2022; the selected city for this year’s festivities was Maastricht.
Two main events are typical of the celebrations: vrijmarkt, or free market where people sell their used items; it resembles a nationwide garage sale. The second topic is oranjegekte, or orange frenzy, the term used to indicate the wearing of the Netherlands’ national colour.
Since his accession, King’s Day has been celebrated each year in a different city: Amstelveen in 2014, Dordrecht in 2015, Zwolle in 2016, Tilburg in 2017, Groningen in 2018, Amersfoort in 2019, Eindhoven in 2021 and Maastricht in 2022. The 2020 celebrations were cancelled due to health safety restrictions.
The celebrations are also held in the country’s overseas territories of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten; the island of Bonaire, in the Caribbeans, still prefers to have the holiday on 30 April rather than the new day.
