Festivities in Doetinchem start hours later due to farewell Pope and King’s Night in Utrecht ‘too busy’

King’s Day is celebrated this Saturday, a day earlier than usual and then the actual birthday of King Willem-Alexander. That is because April 27 falls on a Sunday. Queen’s Day, the birthday of the former Queen Juliana on April 30, was never celebrated on a Sunday at the time.

The royal family, including Princess Beatrix, will be in Doetinchem in Gelderland today. The festivities start an hour later than planned, at noon, because of the funeral of Pope Franciscus. « We respect the situation that has arisen and are happy with the cooperation of everyone who makes it possible to let the program start an hour later, » mayor Mark Boumans of Doetinchem told ANP.

Normally, members of the Royal House would attend the funeral of a Pope, but the Government Information Service announced earlier this week that the Royal Family will remain in the Netherlands due to King’s Day. On behalf of the Dutch government, Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Minister of Foreign Affairs Caspar Veldkamp at the farewell of the Pope in Vatican City.

Utrecht ‘too busy’

Because of King’s Day, it is expected to be very busy in the inner cities of, for example, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven. As a precaution, the municipality of Amsterdam has already called on not to come to the city this month. Yesterday evening it was called in Utrecht to no longer come to the city center for events of King’s Night. The municipality thought it was ‘too busy’ and blocked the entrance of squares after 21 hours.

In this blog we keep the developments at around King’s Day today. And in This report You can already read how Amsterdam is preparing for the expected crowds: