amsterdam, queens day

Sometimes you get lucky. Ever since I looked at European cities during the last world cup I have been intrigued by cities' potential to activate themselves; to turn on and pull the stops out in celebration. But it's a difficult thing to time one's travels to the international festival calender. So I gave myself a little grin when I happened to stumble into Amsterdam's biggest celebration of the year. Really, I didn't mean to, I swear. I came to look at the canals....I just didn't realize that they would be choked with d.j.'ed party barges lobbing techno beats at one other. The left and middle images try to do justice to the phenomenon. The left image is also interesting because the hubbub behind the party-goers is actually for a post-WWII independence celebration later on in the week. I watched military boats tug in a series of floating bridge sections to establish an amphitheater on the canal. The yellow crane in the background has comandeered a bridge to coordinate a substantial stage raising. The right image depicts the street situation around the city center. Amsterdam streets are fairly wide but judiciously portioned into pedestrian, bicycle, automobile, and tram lanes. In festival mode the pedestrian mass swells to absorb the entire cross-section. And anyone can set up a stall (almost) wherever he wants to sell (damn near) whatever he pleases. Hence, the city erupts into a collective garage sale punctuated by dance venues and canals of carousers. The Netherlands' flag is red white and blue--you can see it flying in the middle image--but everybody gets a liberal self-dousing in orange to honor the Queen Mother, a member of the House of Orange.