King’s Day: a Dutch bucket list experience

LocalDutchWays Blog — Bollenstreek — 27 April 2026

There are days that belong to a place so completely that you cannot imagine them happening anywhere else. King’s Day is one of them.

Every year on the 27th of April, the Netherlands turns orange. Not just a little orange. Completely, overwhelmingly, gloriously orange. Football shirts from the Dutch national team, proper orange shirts, faded orange shirts that have been through the wash so many times they are closer to yellow now. If you cannot find a shirt, you make do: orange accessories, Dutch flags, face paint in red, white and blue. The rule is simple. There are no rules. The stranger the better.

You can always spot the visitors who did not know it was King’s Day. They are the ones in normal clothes, looking around with a mixture of confusion and delight, trying to work out what exactly is happening and why everyone around them looks like they are en route to a football match crossed with a street party.

Once in a lifetime. Twice, actually.

King’s Day is the kind of day that belongs on every Dutch bucket list. But here is the thing: you need to experience it twice.

The first time, go to Amsterdam. It is loud, it is packed, the canals are full of boats, the streets are one enormous open-air party. It is exactly as chaotic and wonderful as you imagine, and you need to see it at least once.

The second time, skip Amsterdam entirely and find a local village instead. This is where King’s Day actually lives.

The whole bulb region celebrates

Every town in the bollenstreek has its own full programme, from early morning to late evening, and every single one of them follows the same beautiful rhythm.

The morning belongs to the children. Church bells ring, a brass fanfare plays from a church tower somewhere, and the whole town gathers in the main square for the aubade. Then the flea market opens. Children sell their old toys from blankets spread across the pavement and immediately spend whatever they earn on someone else’s old toys two blankets down. Our own boys spent weeks gathering things to sell, with very clear plans about what they wanted to buy in return.

Alongside the flea market there are games, obstacle courses, and activities that keep children busy for hours. Parents help, compete quietly, and pretend they are not invested in the outcome.

By midday the day shifts gear. The children’s programme winds down and the afternoon opens up for everyone else: live music on the main square, jeu de boules tournaments, family cycling tours through the surrounding countryside, local food and drinks, and the kind of relaxed sociability that only happens when an entire village is outside at the same time.

What makes a local King’s Day special

The Amsterdam version of King’s Day is an event. The local version is a community.

You see neighbours you have not spoken to since last spring. The same families stake out the same spots they have used for years. The children who were too small to sell anything last year are suddenly running their own stall. The grandparents watching from the side are filing it all away for the story they will tell at dinner.

For visitors, this is the version that stays with you. Not because of the size of it, but because you are genuinely inside it rather than watching from the outside.

And here is what makes the bollenstreek particularly special on King’s Day: the whole region is within cycling distance. Grab a bike, ride from village to village, and catch a different atmosphere in each one. Lisse, Sassenheim, Voorhout, Hillegom, each with its own square, its own programme, its own crowd. A full day, all of it orange.

Practical information

King’s Day takes place every year on the 27th of April. If the 27th falls on a Sunday, celebrations move to the 26th. Every village in the bollenstreek has its own programme, published in the weeks before by the local Oranjevereniging. Sassenheim station is a short walk from the centre and the perfect starting point for a day of cycling between villages. Hire a bike, follow your nose, and let the orange guide you.

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