The Dutch celebrate their first King\\\'s day in 124 years

This 27th of April marks a very special day for the Netherlands as the Dutch will be celebrating their first King's day in 124 years.Since the abdication of Willem III in 1890, only queens have ascended the throne. Last April, after 33 years of duty, Queen Beatrix decided to hand over the responsibilities of the monarchy to her eldest son Willem-Alexander, who has now almost completed his first year as King of the Netherlands. From today onwards, he will have the pleasure of celebrating his birthday with the entire Dutch community. His anniversary is on the 27th of April, but if the 27th is on a Sunday, such as this year, King's Day will be celebrated on the 26th of April.
King Willem-Alexander and his wife Queen Máxima, together with other members of the Royal Family, will attend events in two towns of the Netherlands. This year it will be the towns of Amstelveen and The Rijp. There they will be warmly welcomed with festivities organized in their honor, involving traditional Dutch dances and demonstrations of old crafts. Besides these events, the Dutch national day is a country wide day and night event. One of the oldest traditions is the setting up of flea markets all over the country. Very early in the morning of King's Day people start building up their market stalls in the streets, where all sorts of things will be for sale. Around 10am, people start making their way to the flea markets to roam around and look at all the objects that can be purchased. In the bigger cities, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, the markets can get very crowded. Nonetheless, the atmosphere is always very calm and joyful. People enjoy the music coming from different podia as well as the foods and drinks from several street stalls.
After sunset, the markets pack up again to make room for the street parties where people from all ages meet to listen to some music and enjoy foods and drinks. Many people celebrate in the streets until early in the morning, where at a certain point they will meet up with the city cleaners starting their early job of scrubbing the streets.