Amsterdam's 750th Birthday: Opening concert will include "room for tension"

The opening concert in the Ziggo Dome, which kicks off the “Amsterdam 750” anniversary year next Sunday, is also intended to provide room for the tensions in society. “The concert should do justice to this and reflect the spirit of the times. This will therefore be reflected in various themes,” says program director Sietse Bakker.

This also includes the many demonstrations in Amsterdam. “There is room in the city for different voices that sometimes clash. We show this in a very beautiful way in the opening concert.” In doing so, he will draw on the past. “The themes may be different, but there are always groups facing each other.”

During the preparations for the concert, Bakker noticed that only a few Amsterdammers had been involved with the anniversary year so far. “There are a lot of people in the city who live with the day or have other things on their minds. And if you look at what's happening in the world around us right now, people are naturally preoccupied with that too.”

The program director hopes that the 750th anniversary of the capital will “really come alive” through the concert. With the concert, he wants to emphasize how important it is to celebrate, “even in difficult times, even in times when there are tensions in society”. The program includes Willeke Alberti, André Hazes, Sef, S10, René Froger, Sophie Straat, Trijntje Oosterhuis, Berget Lewis, Donnie, Edsilia Rombley, and the Metropole Orchestra.

The concert is the starting signal for Amsterdam’s year of celebrations. “With the concert, we really want to create something that the city and the Netherlands recognize themselves in and with which we invite the entire country to celebrate the anniversary,” Bakker says.

Bakker, who was previously responsible for the production of the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam 2021, was inspired by the opening of the Amsterdam 700 anniversary year: “That was a somewhat staid concert in the Nieuwe Kerk, but still very festive.” This time it is to be a festive opening with as many Amsterdammers as possible in attendance. The Ziggo Dome has space for 15,000 people and the concert will be broadcast live by AVROTROS on NPO 2. “That makes it a moment when we invite the whole of the Netherlands to celebrate with us,” he says.

The concert is working towards a "symbolic moment" that should kick off the anniversary year. "But I'm not going to reveal too much about that yet."