Netherlands Festival Calendar Winter 2025 - Autumn 2026 | Upcoming Annual Events and Festivals in the Netherlands
Festivals in the Netherlands
The Dutch have a knack for throwing a good party. The nation celebrates everything life has to offer with an amazing number of festivals every year. There is an event to suit every taste and mood, whether you enjoy music, art, or cuisine!
Netherlands Festival Calendar Winter 2025 - Autumn 2026
The following list provides an overview of important festivals in major cities you must not miss from Winter 2025 to Autumn 2026. To know more about the festivals and how to visit them, please click on the links below!
30 October - 1 November 2025
Wonderlicht Zaanstad
Description: Wonderlicht is a mystical 2 km evening stroll that features street theater, light installations, fire shows, and more.
Link: wonderlicht.nl
Image Courtesy: wonderlicht.nl
8 - 15 November 2025
GLOW Eindhoven Light Art Festival
Description: Every year in November, the otherwise industrial city of Eindhoven transforms into a magical fairy tale of light, known as GLOW Eindhoven. This annual light art festival attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world who come together to enjoy the breathtaking open-air exhibition of innovative light artworks created by international artists using new media technologies, such as computers, sensors, animations, and projections.
Link: GLOW Eindhoven Light Art Festival 2025 | All You Need to Know Before You Go | Tips for Your Visit
14 November 2025 - 4 January 2026
Valkenburg Christmas Market
Description: During the Christmas season, Valkenburg’s amazing caves are transformed into stunning Christmas Markets. More than 50 stores inside the Velvet and Municipal Caves sell Christmas decorations and presents. Along with that, the entire city is engulfed in a Christmassy ambiance with a dazzling Christmas parade, gorgeous music, and dance festival in traditional costumes, earning it the name of 'The Christmas Town.'
15 - 16 November 2025
Sinterklaas Procession
Description: Saint Nicholas (better known as Sinterklaas, the source of Santa Claus of the West), arrives in the Netherlands on the first Saturday after Sint Maarten (11th November) on a riverboat from ‘Spain’ laden with gifts and mandarins. He then exchanges his boat for his white horse Ozosnel (previously Amerigo) and parades through the streets with the Zwarte Pieten (literally “Black Peters”), his merry band of helpers who throw cookies and candies to the crowds.
27 November 2025 - 18 January 2026
Amsterdam Light Festival
Description: The annual Amsterdam Light Festival (ALF) fills the Dutch capital's canals with magnificent works of light art every winter. Designers, architects, and artists from all around the world submit hundreds of concepts each year, out of which 20 to 30 artworks are chosen for display in the festival by a selection committee.
Link: Amsterdam Light Festival 2025-2026 | 14th Edition | Dates, Opening Hours, and Free Walking Route Map
4 - 23 December 2025
Royal Christmas Fair
Description: The Royal Christmas Market in The Hague is one of the biggest Christmas markets in the Netherlands. Among the sparkling lights and familiar Christmas carols are suggestions for gifts, winter fashion, and Christmas decorations.
12 December 2025
Gouda by Candlelight
Description: There are a lot of activities and markets held in Gouda on this day. Candlelight is the only source of illumination in the city as night falls. Christmas candlelight is also used to highlight the structures in the historic market square and the Gothic town house. The Christmas gospel is recited by the mayor. Christmas carols are then sung collectively underneath the fir tree.
Link: welcometogouda.com/discover-gouda/events/gouda-bij-kaarslicht
13 - 14 December 2025
Charles Dickens Festival
Description: Every year the week before Christmas, the historic center of the Hanseatic League city of Deventer in the Netherlands transforms into a magical Victorian-era English world of Charles Dickens where more than 950 characters from the pages of his famous books spring to life amidst a backdrop of exquisitely restored 19th-century buildings decorated with house-sized Christmas trees and thousands of lights!
13 December 2025 - 8 March 2026
Dutch Ice Sculpture Festival
Description: The Dutch Ice Sculpture Festival is a magical frosty wonderland where the ice crystals melt your heart; where world’s top 45 ice artists from 16 different countries come together to transform ice blocks into 100 breathtaking artworks!
Link: The Dutch Ice Sculpture Festival 2025-2026 | Netherlands Ijsbeelden Festival Biddinghuizen 2025-2026
31 December 2025
New Year’s Eve in Rotterdam
Description: Every year, Rotterdam hosts a massive fireworks show near the Erasmus Bridge.
Link: hetnationalevuurwerk.nl
1 January 2026
New Year´s Dive Scheveningen
Description: To ring in the New Year, hundreds of people jump into the sea every year around noon on New Year's Day. For the past 40 years, this has been the norm. The New Year's Dive is held in front of Scheveningen's Kurhaus Hotel.
Image Courtesy: denhaag.com/en/calendar/unox-new-years-dive
17 January 2026
National Tulip Day
Description: The Dutch tulip producers organize the tulip season's opening on the Dam in Amsterdam. Everyone can pick tulips for free in a specially designed picking area on the Dam.
Link: tulpentijd.nl
12 - 14 February 2026
Highlight Delft
Description: Highlight Delft showcases cutting-edge future concepts developed by designers, artists, researchers, and businesses that are on exhibit in distinctive settings.
Link: highlightdelft.nl
Image Courtesy: highlightdelft.nl
15 - 17 February 2026
Dutch Carnival
Description: Carnival is mainly celebrated in the southern regions of the Netherlands. The majority of people in the primarily Catholic provinces of North Brabant and Limburg celebrate carnival by singing and dancing in vibrant costumes and going to one of the many carnival parades.
Mid March - Early April 2026
Amsterdam Cherry Blossom Festival
Description: Literally meaning 'Flower Viewing,' the ‘Sakura Matsuri’ Festival is a Japanese tradition of celebrating the advent of spring. Sakura Matsuri is celebrated in the Netherlands in the Kersenbloesempark or The Cherry Blossom Park in Amstelveen, approximately 20 km south of Amsterdam.
19 March - 10 May 2026
Keukenhof Gardens Flower Show
Description: 7 million tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, lilies, roses, carnations, and irises create a vibrant sea of blooms over the 79 acres (32 hectares) of Keukenhof every year. Also dubbed ‘The Garden of Europe,’ it is the largest flower park in the world.
28 March - 26 September 2026
Dutch Cheese Markets
Description: Since before the advent of Christ, the Dutch have been associated with cheese. Researchers have uncovered pieces of cheese-making machinery that date back to 200 BC. Due to the Netherlands' lush environment, which was ideal for cattle rearing, cheese-making had become an integral part of Dutch culture by the Middle Ages. Today, there are only five cheese markets left that are held in the cities of Alkmaar, Edam, Gouda, Hoorn, and Woerden. It's interesting how the first four of those cheese markets have been turned into a play so that people can witness what it was like in the past. People are dressed exactly as they did in earlier times, and all actions are carried out in the same manner.
18 April 2026
Bloemencorso (Flower Parade) Bollenstreek
Description: Every year in the middle of April, the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Bloemencorso Bollenstreek makes its 42 km journey from Noordwijk to Haarlem, passing by Keukenhof Gardens.
18 April - 3 May 2026
Tulip Festival Northeast Polder (Noordoostpolder)
Description: Near the World Heritage Site of Schokland, the charming town of Urk, and De Orchideen Hoeve, this yearly event boasts the largest tulip fields in the Netherlands.
27 April 2026
King’s Day
Description: King's Day is probably one of the most popular and flamboyant celebrations in the Netherlands. Every year on April 27 (or the day before if it falls on a Sunday), the Dutch celebrate their King Willem-Alexander's birthday as a national holiday with a lot of music, dancing, flea markets, and fun fairs all over the country.
Link: Celebrating King’s Day in the Netherlands | Amsterdam Koningsdag
25 April - 7 June 2026 and 3 - 18 October 2026
Japanese Garden Show
Description: Clingendael Estate in Den Haag (The Hague) hosts the sole Japanese garden in the Netherlands, dating from roughly 1910, and hence has a great historical significance. Due to its age and fragility, the garden is open only for 8 weeks in a year (roughly 4 weeks twice a year during spring and autumn). Azaleas, rhododendrons, and Japanese cherry trees bloom in the spring. The autumn hues of the various Japanese maple trees make the town particularly colorful in the autumn.
5 May 2026
Liberation Day
Description: On this day the Dutch celebrate the liberation from the German occupation in WWII. Various events are held on this day, such as ‘Liberation Music Festivals’.
Link: 4en5mei.nl/english
6 - 7 June 2026
Kaeskoppenstad
Description: Kaeskoppenstad transforms the city center of Alkmaar into d'Oude Stad (old city). The 16th century is the focus of this yearly event. Hundreds of actors portray Alkmaar as it was centuries ago against the historic backdrop of the Old Town.
Image Courtesy: kaeskoppenstad.nl/english
20 June 2026
Flag Day in Scheveningen
Description: The ‘Vlaggetjesdag’ celebrates the New Herring fish's (matjes) arrival. Additionally, Scheveningen (The Hague) hosts a wide range of events.
Link: vlaggetjesdag.com
Image Courtesy: denhaag.com/en/calendar/flag-day-scheveningen
5 July 2026
Amsterdam Roots Festival
Description: A freely accessible full day of ethnic food, music, dance, theater, and workshops.
Link: amsterdamroots.nl/en
Image Courtesy: amsterdamroots.nl/en
21 - 24 July 2026
Vierdaagse in Nijmegen
Description: The Vierdaagse is the world's largest walking and running event, drawing 45,000 participants from 70 different nationalities and age groups of 11 to 90. Furthermore, Nijmegen has a number of festivals, concerts, and food markets as part of the 4-day celebrations.
Link: 4daagse.nl/en
Image Courtesy: lopenzonderblaren.nl/nieuws/hoe-zwaar-is-de-nijmeegse-vierdaagse
25 July - 8 August 2026
Amsterdam Pride
Description: Amsterdam honors the equality of heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender persons every year in the first part of August. Of course, the most well-known Pride event in Amsterdam is the Canal Parade.
Link: pride.amsterdam
Mid August - Mid September 2026
Purple Hills in Posbank
Description: Veluwezoom, the first National Park in the Netherlands, is a hilly terrain comprising heathlands and sand dunes. During early autumn (late August), the blooming heathers turn the place into a purple wonderland which's best viewed from the 90 m high hill of Posbank.
End of August (Last held in 2025, again to be held in 2030)
SAIL Amsterdam
Description: Historic ships from across the globe sail into the city to celebrate nautical history along with city-wide performances and concerts.
Link: https://www.sail.nl/en
2 - 6 September 2026
HISWA te Water
Description: Because of the wide range of boats and brands from both domestic and international brands, ‘HISWA te water’ is regarded as the most comprehensive boat expo in Europe. The Bataviahaven in Lelystad showcases around 250 new vessels.
Link: hiswatewater.nl/en
Image Courtesy: hiswatewater.nl/en
6 - 7 September 2026
Bloemencorso (Flower Parade) Zundert
Description: Bloemencorso Zundert is the world's biggest flower parade. The floats are enormous pieces of art composed of flowers, papier-mâché, cardboard, and steel wire. All of them are built by volunteers. Dahlias are the sole flower chosen to adorn the floats during the Bloemencorso Zundert.
Link: corsozundert.nl
Image Courtesy: corsozundert.nl
7 - 12 September 2026
Kinderdijk Illumination Week
Description: The UNESCO World Heritage Windmills of Kinderdijk shine like bright beacons against the dark evening skies during Illumination Week (which happens every year around the first or second week of September), when they literally shine a spotlight on each of the nineteen mills. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for photographers looking for truly unique photographs. During this week you can follow various workshops, visit windmills and go on a boat tour.
17 - 21 October 2026
Durga Puja
Description: Durga Puja, also known by the names Durgotsava or Sharodotsava, is a major annual ten-day Hindu festival that is celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Tripura, and the nation of Bangladesh during the month of Ashwin on the Indian calendar (which falls between September and October on the Gregorian calendar), to commemorate the victory of the Hindu Goddess Durga (who is regarded as ‘Adi Shakti,’ the primordial cosmic energy) against the shape-shifting demon Mahishasura after a ten-day war.
3 October 2026
Leiden’s Ontzet (Relief of Leiden)
Description: On this day, Leiden commemorates its freedom from Spanish rule on October 3, 1574. There are fairs and DJ and musical group performances during the celebrations.
Link: leideninternationalcentre.nl/living-here/leisure/leidens-ontzet
Image Courtesy: leideninternationalcentre.nl/living-here/leisure/leidens-ontzet
20 October 2025
Kali Puja and Diwali
Description: Kali Puja, also known as Shyama Puja, is a major annual Hindu festival that is celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Odisha, Tripura, and the neighboring nations of Bangladesh and Nepal on the new moon night (Dipannita Amavasya) of the month of Kartik on the Indian calendar (which falls between October and November on the Gregorian calendar) to commemorate the victory of Hindu Goddess Kali (the fiercest form of Goddess Durga who is regarded as ‘Adi Shakti,’ the primordial cosmic energy) against the demons Chand, Munda, and Raktabija as a part of a greater war between Goddess Ambika (Durga) and the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha.
During the same time, in other northern and western states in India, Lakshmi Puja (worship of Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and fortune) and Diwali (the festival of lights), are celebrated.
Visiting the Netherlands
Best Time to Visit: The best seasons to travel to the Netherlands are spring (April to May) when tulips are in full bloom and early fall (September to October) when beautiful fall colors are everywhere. The weather is mild and pleasant during these times, and the crowds are generally smaller compared to the peak summer season (June to August).
Number of Days to Stay: Seven to ten days are perfect for touring the Netherlands. This allows you to visit major cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague, as well as explore smaller towns and attractions such as Utrecht, Haarlem, Maastricht, and the tulip fields. It also gives you time to experience the Dutch countryside and iconic windmills.
Best Place to Stay: Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is a great place to start your Dutch exploration. It has a large selection of accommodation options, ranging from high-end hotels to inexpensive hostels. Major attractions in the city include the Rijksmuseum, the Anne Frank House, and the Van Gogh Museum. For those seeking a more contemporary urban experience, Rotterdam is a fantastic choice because of its modern architecture and vibrant cultural scene. Additionally, it is a significant transportation hub that facilitates travel around the country. Den Haag (The Hague) which is the seat of the Dutch government and the International Court of Justice, is home to many historical landmarks, museums, and beaches. For those who like to avoid the bustle of the bigger cities, Utrecht is a wonderful option because of its convenient central location and quaint medieval old town. It has excellent train connections to various regions of the nation.
Best Way to Arrive: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, one of Europe's busiest airports, serves as the primary international entry point into the Netherlands. It is connected to numerous international destinations. The Netherlands has excellent train connections to its surrounding nations. Amsterdam is connected to cities like Brussels, Paris, London, and Berlin via international trains like Thalys, Eurostar, and ICE. Numerous international bus companies, including FlixBus, run services from different European cities to the Netherlands. You can also drive to the Netherlands by car, especially if you want to explore the surrounding regions. There is a vast road network throughout the nation, and airports and major cities offer car rental services.
Best Local Mode of Conveyance: The Netherlands has a first-grade public transportation system consisting of buses, trains, trams, metros, and ferries. A contactless smart card called the OV-chipkaart is used to board all public transportation. Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) runs the trains, which are the most convenient means of transportation between cities. In addition to ridesharing services like Uber, taxis are accessible in all major cities. The Netherlands is well-known for its cycling culture, featuring bike-friendly infrastructure and designated bike lanes all around the nation. Cities in the Netherlands are very walkable, especially the central areas of Amsterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague. In cities like Amsterdam, canal boats are a popular way to see the city from a different perspective. Various companies offer canal cruises and water taxis.
Epilogue
So those were all the major events and festivals in the Netherlands from Winter 2025 to Autumn 2026. Please let us know in the comments below if you enjoyed reading this article. And until we meet next time, I wish you merry traveling and happy shooting!
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