Hosting King's Day will cost Emmen at least €800,000 more than budgeted

Receiving the Dutch Royal Family for the 2024 King's Day celebration will already cost 800,000 euros more than Emmen has budgeted. The Drenthe municipality estimated costs at 1.5 million euros when it was announced in July that King Willem-Alexander would visit Emmen with his family. The city's political leaders now expect to spend a minimum of 2.3 million euros for the April 27 event.

According to the municipality, this is mainly due to increased personnel costs in the events sector. Additionally, the city now wants to organize festivities in the villages and hamlets which are also part of Emmen.

On April 27, Emmen wants to show that the municipality has a central role in the southeastern Drenthe region. The program is all about connectivity and meeting one another, according to the municipality. Themes for this year will be pride, space and energy.

The enthusiasm in Emmen is already great, the municipality said. Emmen will have an opportunity to really put itself on the map through live television broadcasts and other media attention, according to the mayor and aldermen.

In other municipalities that have organized King's Day, the number of tourists subsequently increased by several tens of thousands. The event generated 6 to 7 million euros in catering expenditure for Rotterdam last year.

Emmen thinks it can cover the extra money needed from the city's budget. The province of Drenthe is also contributing a million euros. The costs may increase further due to expenses that would otherwise have been incurred, but perhaps only later, such as the purchase of a new large video screen which will be set up on the Raadhuisplein. The full Emmen City Council will decide next week whether to authorize the municipality to spend more on King's Day.