King’s Day 2026
Free markets, festivals and orange bitters. King’s Day 2026 has started! King Willem-Alexander celebrates his 59th birthday in Dokkum on Monday. Upon arrival, the royal family received a stamp card, which they can have stamped at various points along the route to symbolically cross the finish line. Follow everything around King’s Day in our live blog.
liveblog
The Orange celebrate King Willem-Alexander’s birthday today in Dokkum. This is the route they take.
Princess Amalia, Alexia and Ariane are busy taking pictures. They do that with one polaroid camera.
Queen Maxima starts making typical Frisian food cookies.
The Oranges have one received a stamp card with which they do as much as possible typical Frisian activities have to stamp.
The king and queen ignored the fierljeppen. But Prince Maurits and Prince Constantijn took the plunge. They jumped into the stick and then fell into the sand, wearing nice pants.
The mayor of Dokkum, Johannes Kramer, the royal family officially announced on Monday welcomed in Dokkum at the start of the King’s Day celebration. In his speech he congratulated Willem-Alexander on his 59th birthday and reflected on the unifying nature of the holiday.
“King’s Day is a day of solidarity. A day on which we show who and what we are together,” said the mayor. He emphasized the Frisian identity, with attention to language, culture and the region, and the bond with the royal family within the constitutional monarchy.
Kramer then addressed the king personally. He reminisced about a previous visit. “You were here too, Your Majesty, forty years ago. You arrived, got a stamp and plunged back into the darkness towards Leeuwarden. The rest is history – but maybe not quite yet.”
Upon arrival, the royal family received one stamp card issued, which they can have stamped at various points during the route to symbolically represent the to reach the finish line. After the speech, the Frisian national anthem was sung by a singer Elske DeWall, which officially started the festivities.
Royalty expert Josine Droogendijk immediately noticed: the royal family has coordinated their clothes flawlessly today. Together they form exactly the colors of the flag of the city of Dokkum.
The royal family is arrived in Dokkum for the national celebration of Keningsdei. King Willem-AlexanderQueen Máxima and the princesses Amalia, Alexia and Ariane are ready for it, as stated in a post on Instagram: ‘Dokkum, we’re looking forward to it!’ The royal bus was escorted by eight Frisian horses.
The family is accompanied by Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien, among others, and Princes Pieter-Christiaan, Floris and Bernhard are present.
They were all welcomed by mayor Johannes Kramer of the municipality Noardeast-Fryslân and Arno Brok, King’s Commissioner.
The royal family is on its way to the center of Dokkum for the celebration of King’s Day. The Government Information Service has posted a photo of the birthday King Willem-Alexander (59) on Instagram before leaving Hurdegaryp, where they spent the night.
King Willem-Alexander wears one on his birthday gray-blue suit with a tie of the same color. Queen Maxima has chosen one yellow dress with a light brown hat. The princesses Amalia and Alexia both wear a red outfit, while Ariane has dressed up in a white set.
At the Van der Valk hotel they were waved goodbye by dozens of Orange fans, as can be seen Omrop Friesland.
Pieter-Christiaan King’s Day started with a sporty start running lap through the Frisian landscape. The prince shares photos on Instagram of place name signs of the towns of Hardegarijp and Tytsjerk.
“Nice round,” the third son of Princess Margriet and Pieter van Vollenhoven writes with one of the images.
The prince is known as experienced runner. In 2024 he completed the marathon of Berlin and a year later he also completed the Rotterdam marathon.
Monday is not the most beautiful day of the week, but it is the most festive. On King’s Day, sun and clouds alternate. During the national celebration of King Willem-Alexander’s birthday in Dokkum it becomes maximum 14 degrees. Later in the week the temperature will rise considerably and become even summer warmreports Weeronline.
It was not pleasant everywhere during King’s Night. There were fights in some cities. Hit the center of Enschede one person injured in a shooting incident on Stadsgravenstraat. The victim was rushed to hospital.
During King’s Day or Night, many people enjoy one drink. But the morning after is because of one hangover often less fun, especially if you just have to work. Hopefully these tips will help you.
The first visitors of King’s Day events being in the country with the train on the way, the NS sees. According to the carrier, the flow of travelers is coming Calm underway. “The early birds are now on the road, but we expect the large flow at the end of the morning and beginning of the afternoon,” an NS spokesperson said.
The NS will operate a so-called Orange timetablewith more and longer trains running on a number of routes. This also happened in some places on Sunday evening. This King’s Night is in good atmosphere expired, the spokesperson said.
Prince Floris and his wife Princess Aimée are en route to the Frisian Dokkum, where the national celebration of King’s Day takes place on Monday. ‘On our way to Dokkum & Groningen’, writes the youngest son of Princess Margriet and Pieter van Vollenhoven with a selfie on Instagram.
After the celebration in Dokkum, Floris has a performance as dj are scheduled for Kingsland in Groningen. The prince, who has also performed during festivals on King’s Day in previous years, will be on stage at 5 p.m.
Both the support for the monarchy as the report figures for King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima and Princess Amalia to stay this year directly compared to last year. That is stated in the annual NOS King’s Day survey 2026performed by Ipsos I&O. In recent years, support for the monarchy and the report figures increased slightly.
The royal family spent King’s Night in Van der Valk Hotel Hardegarijp. When that news became known, many Orange fans moved to the hotel Hurdegaryp to catch a glimpse.
The royal couple arrived separately and were met by a cheering crowd. Queen Máxima got out of the car with her dog Mambo. “Ready?” she shouted waving to the public. Later that evening the king at the hotel.
Shared earlier today Prince Pieter-Christiaan on Instagram that he was on his way to Friesland. ‘On our way,’ wrote Princess Margriet’s son with a photo of colorful flower fields.
The royal family will arrive in Dokkum on Monday at 11 a.m., followed by a walk through the city. The program is scheduled to end at 1:00 PM.
King Willem-Alexander is Monday 59 years become. The monarch celebrates his birthday with his family Dokkumwhere this year’s national celebration of King’s Day takes place.
The king and his family die 11am arrive in the Frisian town, after which they take a walk through the center. The program is scheduled to close at 1:00 PM.
It is not known how Willem-Alexander will celebrate his birthday. However, the king did say last year during the summer photo moment that he would return after King’s Day Doetinchem with Queen Máxima to the golf course has gone. The king said that the whole of the Netherlands was partying, which is why they found an empty golf course. “We had the best time of our lives,” he said.
It’s busy in the trains Unpleasant Amsterdam and Utrechtreports a spokesperson for the Dutch Railways. On a number of routes around Utrecht and The Hague, the NS operates more and more on King’s Night longer trains.
The NS spokesperson says that the atmosphere good and that the trains are well filled. This especially applies to trains to cities with eventssuch as Eindhoven, Arnhem and Zwolle.
The municipality Utrecht calls to visitors during King’s Night no more to the downtown to come. “It is too busy at several events and routes in the city center of Utrecht. Access to the squares is no longer possible,” the municipality reports.
Among other things Vredenburg is full. Utrecht reported earlier in the evening that it Janskerkhof is full. Other party locations are Domplein and Stadhuisplein.
Several free markets are early started. In Almere The flea market was actually supposed to start at 5 p.m., but it is already over due to the crowds 1 p.m started.
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