King's Day brought 45,000 people to Amersfoort

Some 45 thousand people braved the rain and cold on Saturday to spend King's Day with the Royal family in Amersfoort. Mayor Lucas Bolsuis called it "a fantastic King's Day". King Willem-Alexander spoke of a "fantastic birthday party", the Telegraaf reports.

There was "a lot of energy and enthusiasm" from the moment that the Royal family got off the bus in Amersfoort, Bolsuis said to the newspaper. "You have been working on this for months. Everything has been thought up and prepared, but of course everything still needed to be done. We succeeded. We have written history", the mayor said.

While King Willem-Alexander and his family celebrated his birthday in Amersfoort, it was Amsterdam that was the epicenter of the King's Day festivities, in terms of visitor numbers at least. The exact number of people who attended the King's Day parties in Amsterdam is not yet known, but NS reported that around 200 thousand people came to the capital by train.

The parties in Amsterdam happened with no major incidents. Three people were arrested late in the afternoon. .