Amsterdam kicks off 750th anniversary celebrations with Ziggo Dome concert, special coin
Amsterdam kicked off the year-long celebration of its 750th anniversary on Sunday with a commemorative coin and a grand concert in the Ziggo Dome, NU.nl reports.
Amsterdam turns 750 years old on 27 October 2025 and the city will be celebrating almost 300 activities and around the same number of neighborhood festivals, street parties, concerts, and exhibits.
The celebrations started on Sunday with Mayor Femke Halsema minting the first of the celebratory 5-euro coins, which have a portrait of King Willem-Alexander on the front and the St. Andreas crosses from Amsterdam’s coat of arms, among other things, on the back.
The concert in the Ziggo Dome had appearances by Jeangu Macrooy, André Hazes, and Van der Laan & Woe, among many others. It started with a medley of classics about the city, including Aan de Amsterdamse grachten and Geef mij maar Amsterdam. André Hazes performed part of his father’s classic Bloed, zweet en tranen.
Niels van der Laan and Jeroen Woe sang about the history of Amsterdam in one minute, following the form of their popular program Even tot hier. Every week in that program, they compress a current topic into a satirical song of 60 seconds. Instead of the plastic piano that accompanies the duo on Even tot hier, the song on Sunday was accompanied musically by the entire Metropole Orchestra.
Several artists also expressed support for the Palestinians and drew attention to their plight. After her performance, singer Sophie Straat held up a piece of paper with the text, translated from Dutch: “The Netherlands has blood on its hands.” She sang the song Gebroken spiegels to celebrate Amsterdam’s liberal spirit and desire for freedom. Mocromaniac shouted “Free Palestine!” after his performance and before leaving the stage.
