April 27 is a day when the Netherlands turns orange and takes to the streets to celebrate King Willem-Alexander's birthday. This year, because it fell on a Sunday, the celebration was moved to Saturday, April 26. Citizens of the Netherlands join from morning to night on the streets, in the squares, and even the canals, completely changing the scenery! 

I began my King’s Day at 9:30 AM bright and early in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam. 

My friends and I were told that many people use King’s Day to set up on the streets and sell their old things like one big yard sale. You could find food vendors, used clothes, houseware, and kids’ toys!  

Jordaan street vendors 

Celebrating with other CEA CAPA students!

My favorite booth was run by De Poezenboot, a cat shelter located on a boat. They were exclusively selling cat-related objects to raise funds for their organization, and I made my first purchase of the day, buying a cat frame from them for one euro! A big thing that we noticed with all these vendors was that they were selling their things all at a very low price, guaranteeing that you could find an amazing deal. 

Food booths in Vondelpark 

After walking through Jordaan for a while we made our way over to Vondelpark which is reserved as a children’s free market. Here the entire park becomes filled with children and families running booths to sell toys, run games, or whatever they want to do! Some kids even performed rather than sold items. There was dancing, singing, and instruments playing right along the main walkway, a perfect spot to attract an audience. I had my portrait drawn for €1,50 by a young girl and got to see so many kids just having fun with the booths they had prepared. I definitely wish we had an event like this in my hometown growing up. 

Children running a cotton candy booth  

Me and my finished portrait! 

By noon, the city was getting busier. A street near the Rijksmuseum that I had just walked on with no problem the day before was now a full sea of people. It was becoming a blur of orange filled with laughter and music both live and from speakers. On almost every street there was at least one window, or front door entrance that had turned into a DJ booth with people gathered in front like it was a concert.  

Nieuwe Spiegelstraat full of people  

DJ booth at the entrance of a restaurant 

With the sun out and warm, there was just so much joy everywhere. Building up to this day, I had seen many images of how busy the canals became, but it was still a shock to see the number of boats as well as how many people there were on those boats. It almost looked like you could just walk right across from one side to the other. 

In our orange outfits 

Crowded boats in a canal 

We spent our day walking through different neighborhoods of Amsterdam, exploring markets, and listening to music. Although my day ended at 6:30 PM, many others continued into the night attending other King’s Day music festivals and events. This was such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am so glad that I was here to attend! It is definitely one of the perks of studying abroad during the spring semester in Amsterdam. 

This post was written by Janzyn Tupuola, a CEA CAPA Content Creator from Seattle University, who studied abroad in Amsterdam, Netherlands.