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!

This festival was very special for me as an expat here 1 year and still discovering the city. This…read morefestival is a neighbourhood festival and really cosy or 'knus'. It's a very Dutch event I really recommend it. For this weekend, some of the neighbours at Wilhelminastraat open their doors to showcase their local talent - be it theatre, singing, live music or poetry. There is a show on the hour over three hours on the Friday night when I went and there is a street BBQ and live music perfect for meeting your friends at the beginning, between and at the end of the performances for the closing party. I lived that they had different food between the acts too - I didn't want to eat a huge BBQ plate for example but they had satay chicken, soup and very good burgers on offer later in the evening. The first event I went to was in someone's lovely but cosy living room. I think there were at most 20 chairs available. This was two young parents who got back into music when they started their family. The father was the pianist and singer and he and his wife swapped seats depending on if she was playing accordion or he was playing guitar instead of the piano. The songs were very personal and the acoustics were good. He was singing one song about the aspirations for his boys and I could hear the older brother asking his baby brother to "shh" at the back of the home. When we left we all had an enthusiastic "Ciao!" from this cute little boy too. The second event I saw was a group called Funambulism. There was a lot of talent here but we were asked to not say too much about what we saw and the future for these guys! I'll just say remember the name ;) This was in a larger space with more seating. A very talented vocalist and poet, violinist and two guitarists including an incredible bassist. This was intimate but more polished than the previous artists. These guys had CDs for sale, I even bought one and had a chat with the band afterwards while they signed it for me. This was for me like seeing a starting out band that you know will get bigger and I love the buzz of seeing that talent in a smaller setting. The third and last show I saw was in a hairdressers and was a complete band with cello, trumpet, 2 violinists, accordion and more. This was pretty much a hotbox as so packed but I was in charge of keeping the door open at the end to cool us down on this hot summer night. People walking passed on the street stopped to look and listen the music at this crammed party. These guys did some covers of songs like Monster and some European classics like Natalia. The street party was buzzing and the artists that performed were out drinking and listening to the stage at the end. You could tell these were neighbours doing this from the heart and people like me wanting to ride the coat-tails of that a bit for a different night out. The organiser of the event was a sweetie, talking and smiling with everyone. This event stuck with me for the corner brown cafe and the special, very Dutch, atmosphere that wasn't commercial and had a lot of heart. I will definitely be back for this one but hope that by next year my Dutch is better and I will bring my bike so I can cycle between shows wine in hand like a true local.

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.

I like food trucks and I cannot lie! With the sun shining in the sky! Options for all tastes, in…read moreone big place, all that flavour wafting in your face.... Amsterdam Kookt was a great use of the space at Olympisch stadium. It was my first time at an event here and I was very impressed by the number of options. There were a number of big sponsors such as Juniper and Leffe and representation from the stalls you might know from De Foodhallen along with some exciting new options. It was set up that you used coins to pay for things which would yield quicker transactions when busy. We went on Sunday, the last day which was also Mothers' Day and it wasn't crazy busy which was quite nice for a Sunday afternoon. There were a lot of good looking food options, notably a high number of Sushi options, a Satay Bar, 1-3 Mexican options. There was a gourmet hotdog bar and at least three good burger options including the Butcher and the one we tried. I noted a Johnny Doodle chocolate (love it! Check it out and their ethos if you don't know them yet) and an ice cream truck too. There was a churros van, gin and tonics, wine. The Funkavan was cool complete with a better looking scooby doo dancing guy. There were at least two other music stages, the main one and the one in the Juniper area. Stoke stacks were on hand in the Juniper "smoke pit area". Very mad max meets Steampunk themed - a no-no area for vegetarians and vegans. There was a lot of meat around including a whole pig laid out on "display". I must admit, the sight of this put even me off my meat a bit. We opted for the XL meatlovers burger which had pulled pork, a rare burger with tasty aged meat (they made a point of ensuring all customers knew this and warned you up front), bacon, and a super tasty coca-cola or bourbon slow cooked pork chop as a dressing on top the burger. This was a lot of meat but good. My husband was very happy with this choice. There was a chickpea van with vegan options that looked good too. It was good to see a number of vegan friendly options with so much meat around. I'd come back with more people on the Friday or Saturday afternoon/evening :)

I'm not sure how you can go wrong with a food truck festival, so automatically I love Kookt! There…read moreare all kinds of food trucks available including burgers, smoothies, milkshakes, soul food, pizza, frites, sweet treats, BBQ, some of your favorite restaurants and a few stalls you would recognize from De Foodhallen (http://www.yelp.com/biz/de-foodhallen-amsterdam). Of course there is beer and wine, and if you look around, you can find some cocktails too! There's a lot of space to walk around and isn't as cramped as some of the other festivals. I love the industrial feel of the area and the different sections of trucks. It's a little bit of a maze, but it pretty much follows one flow, so you shouldn't get too turned around. To get to the end is quite a walk. The location was good being right off the ferry from Centraal or the Westerdoks. It is well-marked and has space for bikes. But if you are coming from the ferry, I would just leave your bike where you got on. There is music along with some small and some large stages for you to enjoy. Only downside to the main (big) stage was it was all standing room. I think it would be more inviting with chairs, or high tops to stand around and eat on. The festival works on a token system (like many of them do) and there were registers along the way--not just at the entrance. And there were machines to insert cash to get your tokens. That might help quicken things. But the registers also take pin cards. It seemed that most items were between 2-3 tokens, and they do have half tokens as well. You can find a few items for 1-1.5 tokens and drinks are usually 2-3 tokens. These tokens are 2.50 each, but it's a festival and everything is overpriced. And in case you aren't aware, most people in Amsterdam speak English, so you will be fine if you don't speak Dutch. If you like this festival, check out Rollende Keukens (http://www.yelp.com/biz/rollende-keukens-amsterdam), TREK (http://www.yelp.com/biz/foodtruckfestival-trek-amsterdam), and Food Soul Festival (http://www.yelp.com/map/food-soul-festival-amsterdam).

All the food was great, we tried hamburgers. We tried sushi. We tried duck sandwiches.read more

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.

We've got great weather being there. It helps also the atmosphere at the festival. For me was it…read morefestival full of great food and drinks and funny music. I will definitely come back next year.