No major incidents as crowds flood to King's Night festivities

The first King's Night in two years passed without any significant incidents. People in many cities partied like pre-pandemic times and it was nice and busy. The municipalities of Utrecht and Apeldoorn had to call on people to stop coming to the city center because it was too crowded.

Due to the crowds, Apeldoorn deployed the riot police as a precaution, Omroep Gelderland reported. Late in the evening, the Gelderland municipality said on Twitter that it was too crowded in the city center.

The municipality of Utrecht said around 10:30 p.m. that all public events for King's Night in the city center were full. The city called on people not to come to the city center anymore. Earlier in the evening, the municipality already called on people to stop going to Vredenburg and Stadhuispleis because of the crowds. A spokeswoman for the municipality said the call went out to prevent the situation from getting out of hand. She said that as far as she knows, the atmosphere remained good.

King's Night in Amsterdam was "pleasantly busy," a police spokesperson said. According to her, there were many police officers on the street. The police were not surprised by the crowds as the King's Night festivities for the past two years were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. But no major incidents were reported by mid-evening. According to her, no news is good news.

The city center of The Hague was also packed on Tuesday evening with people attending the tenth edition of The Life I Live festival. "It is moving that after two years of corona we are now back in the city with so many people in a friendly atmosphere," said spokesperson Mark Boulas of the organization. Ukrainian band Go_A, who finished fifth in the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam last year with the song SHUM, opened the free music festival. The Amsterdam band Jungle By Night closed the festival.