Ahhhhhhhhh I'm so in love with this festival!!!!Everything was Amaaaaaaazzzzzzzzing! From the music…read moreto the ambiance. It was well organized and greatly executed. I love to go to festivals, and living in Amsterdam makes it easier for me to do so, since all the awesome ones always happen around it. It was my first time at Loveland and i must say it was love at first sight! An amazing festival if you are a lover of EDM and is always fun in big groups. Also it didn't hurt to hear Carl Cox play his most amazing set yet! It was definitely a Saturday well spent!

This festival takes place during the winter holiday season. I had really high expectations as it…read morehas been quite popular for a few years. I was told that there is a free boat tour where people line up in cues to get a ride, you can walk it along the canal edge, or you can do what we did and purchase a ticket online from "Those Dam Boat Guys". Personally, the later is great and well worth it. Our boat was small and gave us an intimate experience because the boat captain told us a little about the artistic lights and were could ask questions or slow down to take pictures. The lights are illuminated after dark which during the winter is quite early in the evening. Some of the lights were small displays and some were pretty magnificent. The whole festival takes less that 2 hours to view and it really is something to see both as a tourist or a local resident. I do suggest that the best viewing is when it is not a rainy evening so that you don't have an obstructed view from the boat.

Float thru an Amsterdam canal at night, drinking a beer and looking at light art?…read more Duh. FIVE STARS!

What an awesome experience. We went this past May and there was a line to get in before it opened…read more They were about 30 minutes late opening the event because of technical issues with the ticket scanning machines which was annoying but it was all worth it once we were in. It was huge! Food trucks everywhere, cooking classes, bean bags to relax on, music, etc. we tried a lot of food and drinks from delicious in and tonics, Asian style hot dog, salmon, mini burgers, their famous poffertjes, and fruity popsicles.

I will definitely be back again next year. What a fantastic event! Plenty of samples. Manageable…read moresize. The queues can be long for some of the restaurants but all the food was worth the wait! Standouts: A. The fruit! I'm not one to RAVE about fruit but holy cow. Brought home some mangos, the sweetest cherry tomatoes I've EVER tasted and pineapples. The lone disappointment was that the pineapple that I took home was nowhere near the sweetness of the numerous samples that I had at the festival. B. Makro. They were the big sponsor of the event and had a section displaying some of the various food and drink items that they sell. Truly effective marketing because I've never shopped at Makro but am planning my next trip already. Well done, Makro. Well done. Will happily add one more star if the variety of the restaurants that were there was greater. I'm sure this festival will only improve in 2014.

PACHA - the Ibiza party legend at a festival in Amsterdam. I was in straight away. The line-up…read moreincluded The Magician, Martin Solveig, Franky Rizardo, Claptone, Sander Kleinenberg, Todd Terry and Pep&Rash to name a few. The festival ran 12:00-23:00 so you could really make a day of it. There were hammocks where you could lay back and ease yourself into the day or do the opposite and party until your feet hurt and you had to have a lie down. There was a market selling hippy/festival, clothing including furry bodywarmers which I very almost bought as it was on sale but I decided to dance more to warm up instead. No hammock for me, I was here to dance! The four stages meant that there was enough variety that you could dip in and out if you weren't feeling the tunes on the main stage or just wanted to mix it up a bit. This was a well organised festival with tokens on sale for transactions to speed up payment and have queues shorter and make it easier for bar staff and influenced party goers. They had a good range of spirits and mixers on sale, beer, water and a very impressive Toro wine stall. This had a proper selection of wine including a fantastic celeste red which one of my friends and I were super impressed with. The pizza was good and they had a range of organic and other food options including the surinamese food which smelt great but had a longer line. Being a seasoned festival goer, I was impressed with the atmosphere at this festival. There wasn't any trouble that I saw but security and staff weren't heavy-handed either. After being to many festivals across Europe, Australia and NZ I was impressed with this particularly at an outdoor dance event. Not overcrowded, friendly and well done. It was also at a great location as next to Bijmer Arena so easy to get to and from after the event. Martin Solveig was the highlight of my night this time but there were some great dance moments at the other stages. I'll be back of more next year.

3 stars for the sheer scale of this event. It is massive - probably unprecedented. And hilarious…read more The whole city lights up for a week with dance music of every ear-crushing variety, hosted in any venue that can put up speakers and free up a dance floor. Meanwhile, employers, policemen, and bouncers around the city turn a blind eye to the buffet of substances being carted around and consumed by the entire city. It's cool in concept - but huge minus points for the execution. For one thing it's almost impossible to pick an event if you're not familiar with the DJs, since you're essentially simply given a gigantic list of names and venues and left to flail around on your own. But my biggest problem with it is that (at least at the events I went to), they charged something like 2eur per glass of water!!! While also strictly policing bathrooms lest someone dare take a water-holding container near the sink. This is not only a rip-off, it's downright dangerous and flagrantly stupid. For this reason I won't be repeating the experience next year. If you're looking for a good dancing time - go to Awakenings or wait until festival season kicks off in early spring.

Roots Open Air!…read more Roots Open Air is a great family friendly festival, in Oosterpark Amsterdam, and best of all: it's free The Roots Festival has been in Amsterdam for over 30 years in various forms. It offers a stage to a variety of (inter)national artists and experts that share their art, culture and cuisines. In one week you can enjoy several indoor programs. And on Sunday it ends with a free outdoor festival, Roots Open Air. In this years edition I enjoyed the sound of a band with a didgeridoo (Soadaj'), participated in Salsa and Afrohouse workshops, saw a flashmob, danced to beautiful uptempo African and Cuban music and enjoyed a tasty Jamaican BBQ. And then there's so much more I did not even get so see! It has a full program that offers something for everyone! It also has a special section dedicated to children,with drawing tables, workshops and great performances some of which done by really skilled kids! It's one of the festivals that I try to see each year as it's always a great experience! This edition I attended as a Yelp reporter for WTF @ Salto, and had a chance to see the great enthusiasts and volunteers that make this happen. See my report via Salto TV or find my video on YouTube via TillyK101.

De parade is a travelling group of theatre productions and foodtrucks visiting the larger cities…read moreduring the summer months. Food is good. I personally liked the beetroot pasta at la cantina. Juicy sisters is my long term favourite for cocktails and people watching. Out of the 4 shows in 2016, i liked the show by Alex klaassen en henry van loon best, closely followed by the lil' black arial. A warning: It is on average cheaper to go to theatre in town then visit the parade and see some shows. The ambiance is however unique and worth the higher price tag. Tip: - to save money, consider eating outside the parade and catch some of the free shows.

De Parade experience was again this year great - I am still a fan of it!…read more Luckily we had great weather that thursday evening and after some strolling around to have some food first we went to have a tapas dish with some bread, sausages, tzatiki & spreads and other kind of sangria (forgot the name unfortunately :D). They even have launched an app to inform you what kind of theatre shows there are every day. It was actually very diverse and in the end we went to a show called Art-Jan de Vries about his life, lots of drama but some funny moments as well. He was even wearing high heels and put some red lips on... Next to all these shows we also went to the awesome caroussel for only 2 euro's! I really had so much fun and we actually want to go for the 2nd time! There were 2 guys trying to pull your seating and to let you even much faster! Also a popular activity was the silent disco where everyone was queuing up! It was my first silent disco experience, but was really fun & great to do... it was more like dancing in your own world ;) Next year I will definitely go again!

Yayyyyyy!!! It's been forever since I have attended a festival of any kind, and this was a great…read moreway to be re-introduced to festival culture, and Dutch people. I was lucky that this Sunday 2 July 2023 was a gorgeous day with loads of sunshine and we have had an incredible amount of great food. We tried the ebi tempura sushi roll, the duck burger, a couple of different cocktails (daiquiri, disaronno sour), takoyaki (Japanese octopus puffy 'poffertjes', or ittybitty pancake) -- and all smashingly good. There's theatre, live music, old-fashioned games: think rope pulling between 2 people, machine derby racing on a rolling truck à la Chucky Cheese, and catch the wooden stick before it hits the ground (does anybody know what this is called?). All around family fun for all! I am definitely coming back next year.

This is the second time that I've been to the TREK food truck festival and I must say that it has…read morebeen my favorite one. This weekend it was The Hague and I enjoyed all of the different food from the various food trucks that were there. The set up of getting a cup with your drink to be reused was nice because this eliminate people getting a new cup every time they buy a drink. You can trade in your cup or just simply reside it. Because of this I think that's why the area stayed so clean hardly any trash in the park. They had edible straws as well. The location in The Hague was also very nice. The only negative I would say is parking around there was very difficult so for that 4 stars however if you are going by public transportation it wasn't that bad to walk to. I recommend anyone to follow them on Facebook and see where they will be next. I'll be going again next year!!