Events and Festivals

Carnaval

February/March

Among the most popular events is Carnaval (held the five days before Lent every year). The five-day festival involves a reversal of social norms where revellers wear costumes, cities temporarily change their names, a Prince of Carnival is chosen, and daily life is put on hold to make way for parties!

The highlight of the carnival festivities is the Carnival Parade, in which a tour of large floats organised by local carnival associations pokes fun at established authorities and social conventions.

King’s Day

April 27

Koningsdag (King’s Day) is on 27 April and celebrates King WillemAlexander’s birthday. On this day, the country turns orange as everyone wears orange clothing! A tradition is that the royal family visits someplace in the Netherlands and participates in local activities. There are also many festivites throughout the country, as well as flea markets in the city centres.

Feel Good Market

The third Sunday of the month www.feelgoodmarket.nl

The Feel Good Market is an event full of handmade, original and inspiring products, (bio) snacks, drinks, workshops and live music. It takes place on the third Sunday of the month in Strijp-S.

Dutch Technology

Week

7 - 10 June 2023 www. dutchtechnologyweek.com

The high-tech industry is an important sector for the Dutch economy. The sector contributes to the development of solutions for social issues and really delivers top performances. To share this proud feeling, companies, governments and knowledge institutions are working together on a week full of technological surprises. Everyone can see, feel and experience during the DTW how promising and challenging it is to participate in inventions that change the world.

STRP festival Biennale

13 - 16 April 2023 www.strp.nl

STRP invites you to take part in an open dialogue about the relationship between humans, experimental technology, society and the future. They do this through our annual festival and individual events. Together with artists, designers, mediamakers and thinkers, they offer alternative scenarios and mindsets in the form of exhibitions, presentations, discussions and performances. They also offer an extensive education programme based on the concept of ‘thinking through doing and learning through sharing’.

EMOVES festival

10 June 2023 www.emoves.nl

EMOVES is the Urban Culture Festival in the south of the Netherlands. It is an annual festival where young talents and (inter) national professionals get the opportunity to present themselves and to show the world what they got. The festival hosts four different disciplines: Music, Dance, Art and Sports. Every year the city of Eindhoven is the stage for its different competitions, events, shows, projects, seminars, and much more.

Brabantse Dag (Heeze)

27 August 2023 www.brabantsedag.nl

What once started small in 1958 now attracts more than 30,000 visitors every year. The theater parade on the last Sunday of August is undoubtedly the highlight of the year. No fewer than 16 wagon builders’ groups with around two thousand actors travel the streets of Heeze with impressive towering theater sets. The audience is captivated by expressive or endearing drama.

Seriousness and humor, reality and fantasy alternate and bring the past of the Duchy of Brabant to life in a completely contemporary way. Prior to the theater parade, the Brabantsedag offers cabaret, art, theater, street theater and music. In short, the Brabantsedag is a unique experience with culture and entertainment for young and old.

Bloemencorso (Valkenswaard)

10 September 2023 www.corsovalkenswaard. nl

Bloemencorso

Valkenswaard flower parade (each year in September) consists of 14 wagons covered with dahlias, as well as bands.

These large wagons are 12 meters long, by 4,5 meters wide, by 6 meters high (= 40 feet x 16 feet x 20 feet). Together with several music bands, the floats make up a feast for the eyes and ears within the streets of Valkenswaard, performed in front of more than 30.000 spectators.

The yearly revised theme of the Flower parade is being acted out by the wagons and all the acts around them, in a combination of street show and music theater.

Noche de Tuna

22 en 23 September www.tunafestival.nl

The Spanish Tunatradition was introduced in Eindhoven in 1964. Since that moment, Tuna Ciudad de Luz and since 1982 La Tuniña have become an integral part of the street scene in Eindhoven. They annually organize a festival to celebrate this tradition. During this festival they invite many Spanish Tuna groups to Eindhoven to celebrate with us. You can enjoy the music during the Pasa bares in the city centre on Friday, and during the Saturday and Sunday afternoon at the stage performances on the Marktplein.

Dutch Design Week (DDW)

21 - 29 October 2023 www.ddw.nl

The largest design event in Northern Europe presents work and concepts from more than 2600 designers to more than 355000 visitors from home and abroad. Every year in October, the nine-day Dutch Design Week (DDW) takes place in Eindhoven. Spread over about a hundred locations throughout the city, exhibitions, lectures, awards ceremonies, network meetings, debates and festivities are held. Some annually recurring elements are the ‘Graduation Show’ with graduation work from the Design Academy Eindhoven and the exhibition of the Dutch Design Awards.

Dutch Design Week presents trends two years ahead of Milan.

Halloween Oirschot

28 oktober 2023 www.halloweenoirschot.nl

A terrific (and terrifying!) walk for all those who wish the shudder and shiver with fear. Beware: you enter Oirschot at your own risk! Come and shiver in the spooky center of Oirschot between 7 and 11 pm. Everyone can walk the entire route but be aware that some parts of the route are very exciting and scary for small children. That is why there is a special Kids’ Zone. Halloween Oirschot takes place in the historical center of the town. Check the website for the route and ticket information.

GLOW Eindhoven

11 - 18 November 2023 www.gloweindhoven.nl

GLOW Eindhoven is a (largely) free light art festival each year in November at which artists and designers from home and abroad show light art and design applications that have been created through the use of new media technologies, such as computers, sensors, animations, but also more famous projection techniques. It was held for the first time in November 2006.

The festival is an openair exhibition in which characteristic buildings and locations are illuminated with artificial light.