Celebrations largely without incident 01/05/2007 00:00

1 May 2007

AMSTERDAM – The Netherlands celebrated a sunny Queen's Day on Monday; most "Queen's Night" festivities the night before were without incident as well.

Queen Beatrix and family visited the Brabant cities of Woudrichem and Den Bosch, where they were treated to a many performances and local delicacies. Princess Máxima, who gave birth to her third child a few weeks ago, did not attend the celebrations.

Several thousand people lined the parade route in Woudrichem; while more than 60,000 showed up to greet the royals in Den Bosch. Police said the day went smoothly.

Nor were there any serious incidents in Amsterdam, where police say 500,000 people joined in the concerts and parties throughout the city. Turnout was much higher than last year, when 350,000 took part in the celebrations.

All in all police arrested just over 100 people, no more than in an average weekend.

The Dutch railways (NS) transported a total of 215,000 people to Amsterdam on Monday, 15,000 more than in 2006. Most of the train traffic was between 11 am and 1 pm. The first visitors started heading home at about 4 pm.

Most passengers took the NS's advice and disembarked at the Amstel or Amsterdam Zuid/WTC stations and continued their journey to the centre by metro or bus. Centraal Station is undergoing construction at the moment and can handle limited numbers of travellers passing through.

About 80,000 people were at the Radio 538 party on the Museumplein at 6 pm. The square was completely full, said a spokesperson for the radio station. Gerard Joling, Ilse de Lange, Krezip and Van Dik Hout gave performances and DJ Tiësto brought the party to a close at about 10 pm.

There were dozens of concerts, parties and other activities throughout the city.

Flea markets throughout the country were open from 6 am to 8 pm.  Utrecht in particular had a very busy market on Monday.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]

Subject: Dutch news