Amsterdam will require reservations for city's A10 ring road anniversary bash

Visitors of the festival on the A10 ring motorway near Amsterdam on June 21 will have to reserve a time slot, this is done to ensure that the number of visitors are spread out over the event terrain and on public transport, the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, wrote on Wednesday in a letter to the city council.

There has been a lot of interest in the party celebrating the 750th year of the city’s existence on the motorway, which stretches 15 kilometers. Around 680,000 people are expecting to be able to go to the festival, a recent poll shows.

However, a significantly lower number of tickets are available for the event. A total of 280,000 tickets will be sold for people wanting to experience the whole day, a spokesperson for Halsema said. There will also be free tickets which can be ordered from May 21 at 10 a.m.

The preparations for the festival are in full flow, it was stated in the letter. A part of the A10 will be closed over the weekend of June 20 to June 22, and traffic measures will also be taken in the rest of the city.

The municipality is calling on people to use their cars as little as possible during the weekend, because the extra travel time can add over an hour to a trip.

The festival’s program was also recently announced. The ring will be split into three zones: West, Zuid, and Oost. A ticket is required to see the West and Zuid zones. A fashion show, open podium, music party with performances from Jan Smit and Danny de Munk, and a Highway Rave can be seen in these zones.

The Concertgebouw and Kriss Kross Amsterdam will also be given their own podium, and a temporary forest with 750 large and 7,500 small trees will be placed near the area. These trees will be planted at various places in the city after the event. There is also a musical dance parade with floats and a place where 20 couples will get married.

No tickets are needed to visit the festivities in zone Oost. The Run on the Ring, a 7.5-kilometer-long running competition, is being organized in the morning. Around 20,000 people will participate in this event.

After four p.m., the zone will be open for people to walk or cycle on the road. The entire schedule will be viewable from May 20.