A-mag - Amsterdam Magazine: No.3

AMSTERDAM MAGAZINE

SIGHTS & SOUNDS ART & FASHION DANCING & DINING FILM & THEATRE MAY & JUNE 2013

DIVE RIGHT IN!

AMSTERDAM CELEBRATES 400 YEARS OF CANALS. THEY REMAIN THE HEART OF THE CITY. JUMP IN FOR UNIQUE WAYS TO MAKE A SPLASH!

Royal edition

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AMSTERDAM MAGAZINE

N0 3 MAY & JUN 2013

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LIVING IN A MONUMENT People who live in Bruges – that Belgian Renaissance gem – complain that their city has been turned into a postcard version of itself. Now that the Amsterdam Canal Ring has been declared a UNESCO heritage site, Amsterdammers fear the same will happen here. In their nightmare version of Amsterdam, all cars would be banned; the appearance of houses – all of them monuments – would for ever be unchangeable; and grocery shops would move to the suburbs to make way for more profitable enterprises. Our native language would be useless in everyday life.

Of course this will not happen (except for the grocery shops, maybe). We will continue to park our cars in impossible places.

Cyclists will continue to jump the lights and clutter up all our public spaces so that Amsterdam will continue to look like one big bike park. Graffiti ‘artists’ will not stop ‘enhancing’ our monuments.

Amsterdammers will always cherish culture and history as long as it doesn’t interfere with their love of business. If we could sell pancakes in the middle of the Rijks Museum we would, trust me.

We don’t want to live in a monument and you probably wouldn’t want us to either.

It’s the struggle between commerce and practical, everyday life that makes a city interesting. And the nice thing about utopia is that it is a goal to strive for, not to reach. Enjoy the chaos.

Bart van Oosterhout editor-in-chief A-mag.

STAY IN TOUCH: iamsterdam.com facebook.com/iamsterdam twitter.com/iamsterdam youtube.com/videoiamsterdam

CONTENTS P.04 WHAT’S NEW?

City confidential: exciting new Amsterdam initiatives, events and venues – including your Top 5 must-do things this issue, plus royal revelry and a festive final farewell from Queen Bea

P.08 UP CLOSE The city in focus: as Amsterdam celebrates 400 years of canals, we show you how to make a splash in the city; our expat columnist on the quirky habits of the Dutch

P.19 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Van Gogh back in his eponymous musuem; our critics’ picks of the best exhibitions, concerts and events; a few of the Holland Festival’s Annet Lekkerkerker’s favourite things

P.31 EAT, DRINK & CHIC Neighbourhood watch: indie shopping nirvana in the Haarlemmerbuurt; the hottest new shops, the tastiest food trends; and our selection of the best restaurants and bars – old and new – for every taste

P.62 CLOSING Amsterdam ABC, your city need-to-know; once upon a time with Queen Beatrix; top tips from visitors on the way out

P.45 THE A-LIST Agendas at the ready: clubbing to gallery hopping, The A-List is your one-stop, at-a-glance guide to the city’s best music, theatre (language no problem!), sporting, family and gay & lesbian events and venues. Plus: get out of town with our excursion tips

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may & jun 2013

OPENING

What’s new? (in town)

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All the latest cultural news plus the fresh   new initiatives, events and venues making Amsterdam the place to be in 2013.

‘NEW YORK’S ORIGINAL NAME WAS NEW AMSTERDAM??!! DAMN.’ A HISTORICAL PENNY DROPS FOR RAPPER NAS, IN APRIL.

text Toby Main & Megan Roberts

HIGH TEA An Amsterdam chef by the name of Misha Sukyas has combined the art of getting high with haute cuisine in his new e-book Baked. Recipes in the gourmet tome include foie gras (or should that be ‘grass’?) and marijuana lollipops coated in magic truffles, almonds and pistachio nuts.

Cue jokes about the filling meal that leaves you with the munchies.

THAT INKING FEELING Amsterdam has long been regarded by those in the know as the tattoo capital of Europe, with more than its fair share of respected parlours. Don’t believe it? Then ask the likes of Lady Gaga, Robbie Williams and Angelina Jolie, all of whom have taken away indelible souvenirs of their time spent in this fair city. So it stands to reason that Amsterdam is the site of the continent’s foremost tattoo convention, a three-day festival of inking, thinking and industry idea-swapping. Even if you’re not in the market for body adornment, it’s fascinating to see practitioners from all over the world at work in the mammoth RAI Convention Centre. Impulsive types should probably leave their wallets at home.

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31 MAY-2 JUNE, RAI Europalein 22 http://amsterdam.tattooexpo.eu/ nl/2013/

FLYING VISIT Commuters will be paying a daily (admittedly short) visit to the Rijks Museum  now that the decades-old cycle path leading through the reopened building has been reinstated.

Amsterdam’s cycling union is celebrating the success of its campaign to keep the path, with member Marjolijn de Lange commenting: ‘It’s excellent to have this old Dutch culture of Rembrandt paintings together with the modern culture of cycling.’

5 ‘HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT AMSTERDAM’S CONCENTRIC CIRCLES RESEMBLE THE CIRCLES OF HELL?’

AN ALTERNATIVE TAKE ON THE CANAL BELT FROM JEAN-BAPTISTE CLAMENCE, PROTAGONIST IN ALBERT CAMUS’S NOVEL THE FALL.

‘DE KAS IN AMSTERDAM IS THE MOST GORGEOUS DINING EXPERIENCE – SET IN A GREENHOUSE, WONDERFUL STAFF, DELICIOUS AND THOUGHTFUL FOOD. SO HAPPY.’ A POSITIVE REVIEW FROM SINGER JESSIE WARE, IN MARCH.

AMSTERDAM ON A PLATE

RED LIGHT RETIREMENT The identical twin sisters believed to be Amsterdam’s oldest working prostitutes have finally hung up their stockings. Louise and Martine Fokkens, 70, made headlines around the world upon the release of the 2011 documentary Meet the Fokkens, which portrayed the pair in a sympathetic light and told the sometimes poignant story of how they came to be practising the world’s oldest profession.

In reality, Louise had retired a while ago on account of her arthritis, but Martine was to be seen waving at passers-by from her spot near the Singel Hotel until March this year. Now the pair are thought to be concentrating on artistic pursuits, which include painting. After a combined century of work, let’s hope they allow some time for rest. www.meetthefokkens.com

If you haven’t got time to explore many of the city’s eateries during your visit, then Taste of Amsterdam – which sees some of the best restaurants assembling for an al fresco feast of epic proportions – offers a bite-sized solution, while simultaneously allowing you to work on your tan in one of the capital’s lesser-known green spaces, the Amstelpark. The chosen restaurants will fashion special menus of startertype proportions for the occasion, including signature dishes created by head chefs to reflect their culinary philosophy and showcase seasonal ingredients. As well as a host of food and wine suppliers touting their mouthwatering wares, there’s a programme of interactive demos at the Taste Theatre, with celebrity chefs taking to the stage to impart their foodie knowledge.

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6-9 JUNE, AMSTELPARK www.tasteofamsterdam.com

NO STONE UNTURNED A long-neglected Jewish cemetery in the Zeeburg district  has been restored to its former glory and reopened to the public – thanks in part to the combined efforts of a group of Moroccan and Jewish youths. The youngsters have been cleaning graves and clearing overgrown vegetation, and visitors are welcome on the second Sunday of May and the first Sunday of June. www.eerherstelzeeburg.nl

CELLAR VIE! One of Amsterdam’s swankiest hotels is making the late-afternoon tradition of ‘High Tea’ an awful lot more fun – by introducing a tipple or four into the equation. Every day between 3pm and 6pm, the canal-side Dylan Hotel  is offering a new ‘High Wine’ menu that pairs indulgent bites selected by honcho chef Dennis Kuipers – think duck breast with dried cherries and oyster – with complementary wines. www.dylanamsterdam.com

may & jun 2013

OPENING WHAT’S NEW?

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‘AMSTERDAM WAS A GREAT SURPRISE TO ME. I HAD ALWAYS THOUGHT OF VENICE AS THE CITY OF CANALS; IT HAD NEVER ENTERED MY MIND THAT I SHOULD FIND SIMILAR CONDITIONS IN A DUTCH TOWN.’

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‘JUST WENT TO THE ANNE FRANK MUSEUM AND IT WAS BY FAR ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING MUSEUM EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE.’ TV PRESENTER KELLY OSBORNE SWAPS THE RED CARPET FOR REMEMBRANCE, BACK IN MARCH.

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4 & 5 MAY www.4en5meiamsterdam.nl www.joodsmonument.nl

PAUL GAUGUIN VAN GOGH PAINTING SUNFLOWERS

CONCRETE

On 4 May citizens all over the country pause to pay their respects to the fallen of World War II and subsequent conflicts. The following day – Liberation Day – is a different affair altogether, as the Dutch celebrate independence from Germany, quite often by loudly demanding the return of the war’s now legendary stolen Dutch bikes. There’s plenty of patriotic music, too, and revellers flock to the open spaces of Dam square and the Beursplein to get involved.

Throughout the weekend, walking routes pass by the houses from which Jews were taken or fled during the Third Reich.

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PETER KOOIJMAN

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TOP 5

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REMEMBER, THEN REVEL

WELLNESS SKULL, 2007 © & PHOTO ATELIER VAN LIESHOUT

POET JAMES WELDON JOHNSON (1871-1938) WASN’T A FAN OF TRIPADVISOR.

to do

If you only do one thing in Amsterdam, make it one of our top picks of must-do events, exhibitions, museums, music and more this issue.

1 VAN GOGH AT WORK More than 200 paintings, works on paper, sketchbooks and letters by Van Gogh and his peers offer new insights into his creative processes. until 13 January 2014, Van Gogh Museum www.vangoghmuseum.nl

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Get en route for a sculpture stroll with some seriously engaging eye candy.

22 May-22 Meptember, Plan-Zuid District www.artzuid.nl

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4 HOLLAND FESTIVAL Straddling theatre, dance, music and more, the Holland Festival is your one-stop-shop for all manner of artistic enlightenment.

1-26 June, various locations www.hollandfestival.nl

2 OPEN GARDEN DAYS Calling all green-fingered voyeurs: gets a sneak peek at the private oases hidden behind the city’s historic canal houses.

14-16 June, Museum Van Loon & elsewhere www.opentuinendagen.nl

3 ARTZUID

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5 ROLLING KITCHENS The ultimate meals on wheels, the ‘food truck revolution’ reaches Amsterdam with vanbased vendors doling out their delicacies.

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9-12 May, Westerpark www.rollendekeukens.nl

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QUARTETT © TEATRO ALLA SCALA. PHOTO: RUDY AMISANO ©-TEATRO-ALLA-SCALA

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‘I AM ABDICATING BECAUSE I AM CONVINCED THAT THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR COUNTRY SHOULD NOW MOVE TO THE NEXT GENERATION.’

OUR QUEN, AT BEURS VAN BERLAGE

GEERT VAN DER WIJK

DUTCH QUEEN BEATRIX IN HER TELEVISED ABDICATION.

QUEEN BEA Two exhibitions celebrate the ever-popular Queen Beatrix over the next months. Our Queen features 145 photographs, each accompanied by short historical texts and anecdotes, showing Beatrix in her role as head of state as well as more personal moments in her life. Inaugurated, meanwhile, focuses on the festive, ceremonial inaugurations of seven generations of the Orange-Nassau family, with royal garments, historical artefacts and a host of images. Visitors who missed the inauguration of King Willem-Alexander on 30 April can relive the event in an audio-visual installation.

OUR QUEEN, UNTIL 25 MAY, BEURS VAN BERLAGE www.beursvanberlage.nl Damrak 243 INAUGURATED, 11 MAY-18 AUGUST, DE NIEUWE KERK www.nieuwekerk.nl Gravenstraat 17

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ROYAL REVELRY Traditionally rivalling New Year’s Eve as the biggest bash of the year in the Netherlands, with the city centre awash with orangeclad revellers, Queen’s Day this year was a bittersweet affair. With the swearing in of King Willem-Alexander – only the fourth ever Dutch King and the first male in the top job since 1890 – it’s likely this was the last Queen’s Day until one of Willem-Alexander’s four daughters someday replaces him, and it was marked in style. The Royal Boat Parade saw the newly crowned monarchs cheered along the IJ front, serenaded by legendary Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

From 2014, King’s Day will be celebrated on 27 April, Willem-Alexander’s birthday.

A FESTIVE FAREWELL Bucking the ‘job for life’ trend of most European monarchs, Dutch Queen Beatrix abdicated in favour of her son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander last month, after 33 years of royal duties.

She followed in the footsteps of both her grandmother, Wilhelmina, and her mother Juliana, who passed the crown on in 1980, aged 71, with the comment: ‘As one gets older, one realises sooner or later that one’s powers decrease.’ We can think of many a washed-up ‘celebrity’ who’d do well to remember that…

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PART I UP CLOSE

making a splash

MAKING A SPLASH Jump right in, as Amsterdam celebrates 400 years of canals.

SHIPSHAPE HOMES Ever wondered who those people are that live on all those boats that you see permanently docked on Amsterdam’s canals? What moved them to choose life on the water over life on shore? Boatp People, by Amsterdam journalist Jowi Schmitz with photos by Friso Spoelstra, contains 18 portraits of different boatdwellers. From water yuppies to an old family of skippers that one day moored in Amsterdam and never left; from the student who built his own home on a rotten barge to the family that roamed around for years before they found a place to drop their anchor.

Boat People of Amsterdam is available at bookshops around town priced â‚Ź24.95

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From stinking beauty to UNESCO treasure, the Canal Belt has come a long way.

FRISO SPOELSTRA

text Mark Smith & Megan Roberts illustration Lobke van Aar

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

T

he stylish woman who ascended to the Dutch throne as Queen Consort this spring cut a very different figure last September when she emerged, soggy but triumphant, after swimming a two-kilometre course through Amsterdam’s famous waterways.

Princess Maxima, as she was known then, was taking part in ‘Amsterdam City Swim’, an annual charity event that sees hundreds of be-wetsuited fundraisers hurling themselves into the waters of the canal network that has earned this city its nickname ‘the Venice of the North’.

Such is the blistering charm on display here, some devotees have even wondered whether Venice shouldn’t rather be renamed ‘the Amsterdam of the South’…

tling transport network, but also as rubbish tip and open sewer for households and industry alike.

As city historian Fred Feddes, author of A Millennium of Amsterdam, puts it: ‘The refuse from abattoirs, markets and homes, the corpses of every imaginable domestic animal, faeces: all were to be found floating around the water.’ Not such a royal flush, then.

Indeed, when the first English and French tourists began to visit Amsterdam in the 1700s, the city had already earned the not-so-complimentary moniker ‘a beautiful virgin with stinking breath’ on account of the contrast between its singular attractiveness and the horror of the stench, particularly during the warmer months.

VIRGIN WATERS Taking a dip in the canals would have been downright unthinkable in the Amsterdam of yesteryear, however. From the Middle Ages right up until the 1970s, the nowpicturesque pleasure boat-strewn canals of Amsterdam functioned not just as a bus-

A NARROW ESCAPE As the industrialisation of the Golden Age went into overdrive, a summerhouse outside the city limits came to be viewed as an absolute necessity for Amsterdam’s urban elite. Later, when modern, sanitary solutions for waste management were

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PART I UP CLOSE

making a splash

LIVING IN A BOX

TOWERING TERRACE Looming 66 feet above sea level – which itself is 3.6 metres above Amsterdam ground level – is possibly the largest roof terrace in the city. NEMO Piazza nests atop one of the city‘s most impressive feats of modern architecture: the über-kid friendly Science Center NEMO. Free to access during opening hours, if the cocktails and tapas don’t lure you, the panoramic views of the city surely will.

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Oosterdok 2 www.e-nemo.nl

They’re cheap, compact and sustainable: no wonder so many companies are converting former shipping containers into residential spaces – from summer houses to artists’ studios. The Keetwonen complex  in Amsterdam’s Watergraafsmeer, however, took things one step further, when it became Europe’s largest container city in 2006, with 1,000 units of self-contained student accommodation. At just 30 square metres, they’re ‘compact‘ even for this densely populated country – but each studio contains a private bathroom, kitchen and balcony.

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THE VENICE OF THE NORTH

rolled out across the city, few residents opposed the energetic programme of filling in canals that peaked 1865-1895, and saw a resurgence around 1935, when the road vehicle began to challenge the barge as Amsterdam’s delivery system of choice.

‘Before that point, goods from all over the Netherlands – peat for the stoves, vegetables and later coal – were sold to the customers along the canals almost entirely by barge,’ says Henk Dessens, director of collections at the Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam’s maritime museum.

Fortunately for postcard sales, an evolving ‘heritage’ movement has prevented Amsterdam’s watery paradise from being paved over completely and, in 2010, a growing sense that Amsterdam’s canals should be preserved for posterity was formalised when the waterways of the central Canal

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Belt were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list alongside such big-hitting eye candy as the Grand Canyon.

PICTURE PERFECT The newly-reopened Rijks Museum – in common with the commercial galleries that do brisk business on the nearby Nieuwe Spiegelstraat – has no shortage of mistyeyed depictions of the city’s aquatic thoroughfares, and August’s Grachtenfestival (‘Canal Festival’) culminates each year with a rousing burst of ‘Aan de Amsterdamse Grachten’, a song from 1949 that heaps sentimental praise on the twinkling lights and tree-lined splendour of the canals before concluding: ‘No one could wish for better than to be an Amsterdammer’.

As the upper-crust names of the innermost canals – Herengracht, Keizersgracht and

‘GOODS WERE SOLD TO CUSTOMERS ALONG THE CANALS ENTIRELY BY BARGE.’ Henk Dessens, director of collections at the Scheepvaartmuseum

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Tirza Mol is Amsterdam’s only gondolier, and on balmy summer evenings she can be seen gracefully navigating the less-than-temperate waters of the Canal Belt with up to six passengers, artfully avoiding the abundant canal boats and pedalos. Having convinced a master craftsman to break with tradition – which dictates that fathers pass the banner down through the male line – and teach her the craft, Mol spent months in Venice learning the trade before bringing her boat home to Amsterdam. www.gondel.nl

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making a splash

PART I UP CLOSE

GOLDEN AGE TOWN PLANNERS SAW THE POWER OF THE WATER.

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 Prinsengracht; gentlemen’s, emperors’ and princes’ canal – make clear, living beside the water in central Amsterdam has long been an aspirational affair – as was the intention of the city’s ruffle-wearing Golden Age town planners. A dynamic audio-visual exhibit in the Grachtenhuis museum recreates the 1613 meeting in which councillors and cognoscenti first convened to debate the logistical options for much-needed city expansion. What it makes abundantly clear is that these men always envisaged that the resulting horseshoe-shaped Canal Belt should be a highly desirable place to live, in contrast to the more functional canals of the Jordaan to the west, with their malodorous leather tanneries and breweries.

As Amsterdam’s current mayor, Eberhard van der Laan, puts it: ‘They saw the power of the water and the options for economic and cultural development, and translated this vision into an incomparable architectural solution, a Dutch masterpiece.’

One, it might be added, that nowadays is fit for a queen.

LIFE’S A BEACH You don’t need to leave the city to feel sand between your toes: check out one of Amsterdam’s urban options.

Head east to self-dubbed ‘creative refuge’, ROEST,  which is hipster central during a Friday night DJ session.

BLIJBURG is the city’s oldest – and most Bohemian – city beach, one of the few where you can actually swim.

STRAND ZUID  is a somewhat sleeker affair, where beautiful people go to see and be seen, while STRAND WEST  is open year-round and has panoramic views of the IJ. www.iamsterdam.com

TV DINNER In the 1960s, the powers that be feared the corrupting influence of advertising on private TV channels. So for four months in 1964, TV station Noordzee got around legislation by broadcasting from a floating platform off the North Sea coast. These pirate-private broadcasters introduced a generation of Dutch kids to the likes of Zorro and Mister Ed until the harbour police shut them down. Since 2011, REM Eiland has been permanently docked 22 metres above Amsterdam’s Harbour, and now houses an affordable Dutch/French restaurant.

Haparandadam 45-2 www.remeiland.com

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THE AMSTERDAM CANALS Part of a fantastic collaboration between the Grachtenhuis Museum and National Geographic, this photography exhibition showcases the work of Cris Toala Olivares, a prodigious young shutterbug who’s dedicated a considerable period of his working life to capturing the character of Amsterdam’s Canal Ring.

Catch it at the Grachtenhuis until 2 June

GET ONBOARD The historic heart of Amsterdam was designed to be seen from the water, and whether you choose one of the city’s abundant canal cruise options or captain your own electric boat, you’ll get a whole new perspective. If you fancy combining multiple Dutch clichés, check out the pancake boat (cruising plus all-you-can-eat pancakes) or hire a ‘water bike’ and spend an afternoon eye-to-eye with the ducks. www.iamsterdam.com

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PART I

making a splash

UP CLOSE

LIVING BESIDE THE WATER IN CENTRAL AMSTERDAM HAS LONG BEEN AN ASPIRATIONAL AFFAIR.

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MUSIC WITH A VIEW One of the finest examples of contemporary Dutch architecture on Amsterdam’s industrial IJ front – all concrete and steel angles with a shimmering glass façade – also happens to be a worldclass contemporary music venue. Even better: Restaurant Zouthaven on the Muziekgebouw’s ground floor serves up the freshest seafood on one of the city’s best – and biggest – panoramic water-side terraces.

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Piet Heinkade 1 www.zouthaven.nl

AQUATIC ARCHITECTURE NORTH SEA BEACHES

FRISO SPOELSTRA

With its maze of criss-crossing canals, it’s no wonder Amsterdam has so many bridges – at least 1,281, to be precise. Some are historic (the oldest dates back to 1648); some are romantic and a few are awe-inspiring feats of modern engineering.

And the city’s contemporary canal houses are no less impressive than its historic ones: check out Scheepstimmermanstraat  if you don’t believe us. Each of the 60 unique water-side houses was designed by the owner in a colourful example of user-participation housing.

The Dutch coast is renowned for its wide beaches, extensive dunes and vibrant beach cafés in all shapes and sizes: trendy in Bloemendaal; relaxed in Zandvoort. The former is especially popular with trendy sun-worshippers; Zandvoort, meanwhile, is part of a nature reserve complete with abundant water sports facilities.

Bloemendaal: from Central Station, take the train to Haarlem then bus 81 (direction Zaandvoort). Journey time: approx. 45 min.

Zandvoort: from Central Station, trains to Zandvoort aan Zee take approx. 435 min.

PART I

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UP CLOSE

When in Amsterdam…

After 16 years here, native New Yorker Lauren Comiteau is still working out how to ‘go Dutch’.

Ben's Father

COLLEC TIO

N JE WISH

HISTORIC

AL MUSEU M

Grandmother Uncle Jaap Little Ben Bloeme Aunt Marie

THIS OLD HOUSE

E Lauren Comiteau is a journalist and writer who has been covering the Netherlands for TIME magazine, CBS Radio and others since 1996. She lives in Amsterdam with her two daughters.

very old house has a history. Especially in a city like Amsterdam, where the first ‘modern’ dwellings were already dotting the city’s landscape 700 years ago.

I recently went in search of mine.

Every 4 and 5 May, the Dutch get a double dose of history, as Remembrance Day and Liberation Day are celebrated respectively across the nation. Royal acknowledgement of lives lost in bloody battles from World War Two to Indonesia’s War of Independence give way the following day to merrier celebrations of the country’s liberation from five years of Nazi occupation.

A few years ago, several cultural institutions created a tribute to the tens of thousands of the city’s Jewish residents who were killed during World War Two. You could –and still can – search for an address in the database and fill in the historical blanks of that most violent of eras, seeing if a specific Amsterdam address is ‘one of the 21,662 houses where Jews lived who were murdered during World War Two’.

I did, and mine was. There was even a name to put to the faceless dwellers of my home: De Vries. While all three members of the De Vries family who lived in what is now my home were killed – along with the majority of an extended family descended from eight siblings – there were two branches of the De Vries family that survived.

I recently met one of them: Ben de Vries, the nephew of my home’s former owner, and his spritely wife Annemarie, also a war survivor,

in the Israeli town of Herzliyya.

Walking into their house, it’s clear they’ve taken their history with them: Delft tiles line the walls, and I’m served up a very Dutch borrel (little snack) – where the one very visible concession to their adopted homeland is the hummus that has replaced the cheese.

Ben doesn’t remember if he ever visited my house on Hemonystraat where his uncle Jaap, aunt Marie and younger cousin Benjamin lived before being deported to Auschwitz and other camps, but he does remember his own family home on Den Texstraat.

‘We had three hiding places,’ Ben tells me.

‘One between the floors, one in the cellar and the other in a cupboard in my parents’ sleeping room where we were trained to go.’ (My own house has a crawl space that was also used as a temporary hiding place from Nazi soldiers.)

If you’re fortunate enough to be in the city for any of the May celebrations, see the new King lay a wreath in Dam square on the 4th, check out the annual Liberation Day concert on the Amstel and lay down your fork and observe two minutes of silence on 4 May at 20.00 with some 16 million Dutch others in an awe-inspiring few moments where even bicyclists take to the curb in silent reflection.

You can even peek inside the houses where Jewish war victims used to live, open to the public on both 4 and 5 May. At the very least, don’t forget to look up and admire the brickwork of Amsterdam’s old homes. Someone else used to live there.

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ADVERTORIAL

I AMSTERDAM CITY CARD

may & jun 2013

JOHN LEWIS MARCHALL

The city’s iconic art institutions present blockbuster shows. See them all – for free or with a discount – with the I amsterdam City Card.

VAN GOGH MUSEUM 

RIJKSMUSEUM OPEN 

The Van Gogh Museum is one of the major milestones of the Amsterdam 2013 celebrations. This year marks 40 years since the institution first opened on Museumplein, as well as the 160th anniversary of Vincent van Gogh’s birth. In celebration, the museum presents the extensive exhibition Van Gogh at Work. Featuring 200 paintings, drawings and letters, it brings to life his artistic development and marks the culmination of nearly a decade of research into his methods and development.

After a decade of unprecedented renovation, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, home to a host of Rembrandts and Vermeers, finally showed off its new (and old) look in April 2013. Inspired by venerable French museums like the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum (meaning: ‘state museum’) had been founded in The Hague in 1800 to house treasures from the Golden Age, and was moved to Amsterdam at the behest of King Louis Bonaparte in 1808.

It eventually moved into the grand PJH Cuypers-designed Museumplein building.

VAN GOGH AT WORK

FREE admission with the I amsterdam City Card

A GOLDEN AGE TREASURE TROVE

With an entirely refreshed layout, fully renovated building, new public facilities, newly landscaped garden and Rembrandt’s iconic ‘The Night Watch’ returning to its original gallery, 80 halls now display 8,000 pieces of art and history – more than even the most fervent museum visitor can digest in one day.

Get a €2.50 DISCOUNT on presentation of the of the special voucher you receive with the I amsterdam City Card.

MARTIN WA ALBOER

HIGHLIGHTS WITH YOUR I AMSTERDAM CITY CARD:

CANAL CRUISING If you’re visiting for the first time, a canal cruise is an excellent introduction to the city’s many sights. There are a number of departure points throughout the city and the tours are available in many languages.

FREE canal cruise with the I amsterdam City Card (choose between Holland International or Blue Boat Company)

HOUSEBOAT MUSEUM 

MARITIME DISCOVERY 

FREE admission with the I amsterdam City Card

FREE admission with the I amsterdam City Card

After realising how many people were interested in this unique way of living, this former houseboat was turned into a museum in 1997. The interior still gives the impression that people are living there, and it’s the perfect way to discover more about the quirks of daily life on the water.

Discover how Dutch culture has been shaped by the sea. Interactive exhibitions demonstrate 500 years of maritime history. There are a variety of exhibitions, including ones especially for children, and the famous replica of the Dutch East India ship Amsterdam is outside.

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STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST PETERSBURG

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Amsterdam’s Museum Square is full once more, with the opened Rijksmuseum and the renovated Van Gogh Museum joining the spectacular Stedelijk to tell the history of Dutch art in one place.

HERMITAGE AMSTERDAM 

AMSTERDAM MUSEUM 

A highlight of the Netherlands-Russia 2013 celebrations, the Hermitage Amsterdam presents a major exhibition devoted to Peter the Great. By the time he took power at the age of 17, Peter was determined to transform his country. Before long he had turned Russia into a great power.

This sweeping exhibition uses historical artefacts, paintings, gold jewellery from the ancient world, weapons and unique documents to sketch the life of this peerless ruler.

The 17th century is often regarded as laying the foundations for the modern state of the Netherlands. It was an era of world trade, economic growth, cultural and religious diversity, flourishing science and the construction of the Amsterdam canals, but also a century of slavery and war. The Amsterdam Museum tells the riveting history of the Dutch Golden Age using the latest multimedia techniques and a treasure trove of world-class art.

A must-see.

PETER THE GREAT

FREE admission with the I amsterdam City Card

THE GOLDEN AGE – GATEWAY TO OUR WORLD

FREE admission with the I amsterdam City Card

THIJS WOLZAK

> THE AMSTERDAM CANALS 

In collaboration with National Geographic, Het Grachtenhuis presents the work of Cris Toala Olivares, a young photographer dedicated to capturing the essence and contemporary character of Amsterdam’s Canal Ring.

Until 2 June 2013.

FREE admission with the I amsterdam City Card

EXPLORE EVERYTHING AMSTERDAM HAS TO OFFER WITH THE I AMSTERDAM CITY CARD. Visit world-class museums, take a cruise through the charming canals and sample the local delicacies – all for free or with a significant discount.

• Free entrance to over 40 museums • Free public transport • Free canal cruise • 25 per cent discount on attractions • 25 per cent discount on food & drink …and more I amsterdam City Card for 24 hours – €42 I amsterdam City Card for 48 hours – €52 I amsterdam City Card for 72 hours – €62

The I amsterdam City Card is available at Amsterdam Tourist Offices, hotels, canal cruise companies and GVB Tickets & Info offices. For more information, see www. iamsterdamcitycard. com

Share the Thrill !

MAY 10, 11 > IVÁN FISCHER BEETHOVEN 1, 2 AND 5 MAY 15, 16 > HERBERT BLOMSTEDT HANNES MINNAAR, PIANO WORKS BY BEETHOVEN AND NIELSEN MAY 24, 26 > ANDRIS NELSONS WAGNER: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN MAY 30, 31 > IVÁN FISCHER BEETHOVEN 3 AND 4 JUNE 5, 6 > GUSTAVO DUDAMEL CHRISTIANNE STOTIJN, MEZZO-SOPRANO WORKS BY BENZECRY, LIEBERSON AND DVORÁK JUNE 13, 14 > HEINZ HOLLIGER VERONIKA EBERLE, VIOLIN WORKS BY HOLLIGER, BERG AND ZIMMERMANN JUNE 19 > MARISS JANSONS DENIS MATSUEV, PIANO WORKS BY ENESCU, RACHMANINOFF, PROKOFJEV AND STRAVINSKY ALL CONCERTS TAKE PLACE IN THE CONCERTGEBOUW, AMSTERDAM

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LANGUAGE NO PROBLEM SHOWS MAY-SEPTEMBER 2013

YOUNG@HEART

A choir of wordclass from the United States with a minimum age of 73

26 MAY

EL GUSTO – KASHBA BLUES

2 JUNE

Reunion of the masters of the Chaabi

HANS WAS HEIRI

Day to day situations in a different perspective. Acrobatics, dance and music

GILBERT O’SULLIVAN

The Irish singer songwiter with 14 world famous hits

13 - 15 JUNE 18 JUNE

WEST SIDE STORY

The Radio Philharmonic Orchestra plays the music of West Side Story live, accompanying a screening of a newly restored print of the film

23 JUNE

LAVINIA ME�ER

28 JUNE

HANS KLOK

16 JULY - 25 AUG

She brings the versatility and power of the harp The New Houdini - a tribute to Harry Houdini

ELLEN TEN DAMME

This circus-rock diva confesses her seven deadly sins

30 AUG - 29 SEP

WWW.CARRE.NL 0900 25 25 255 (€1,30 PER CALL)

20 22 27 28

ENTERTAINMENT ‘AMSTERDAMMERS ARE A LITTLE COCKY. THEY ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS, WITH STRONG OPINIONS, EAGER TO EXPERIMENT, ALL FREE THINKERS, DARING AND INNOVATIVE…’ Annet Lekkerkerker, managing director of international performing arts extravaganza, the Holland Festival

‘IT IS NOT THE MONUMENTS IN THE CANAL RING THAT EARNED UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE STATUS; IT IS THE UNIQUE STRUCTURE OF CANALS, HOUSES AND GARDENS…’

LEANDRO IBARRA

Tonko Grever, organiser of Amsterdam Open Garden Days

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may & jun 2013

PART II

VAN GOGH AT WORK HIGHLIGHTS 13 QUESTIONS FILM

PREFIERO QUE ME QUITE EL SUEÑO GOYA A QUE LO HAGA CUALQUIER HIJO DE PUTA That’s ‘I’d rather Goya robbed me of sleep than any other arsehole’ to she non-Spanish-speaking among us. A colourful exploration of the place of ‘high art’ in our modern consumer society, this surrealist staged monologue tells the story of a man of elevated ambitions, struggling to transcend popular culture, which keeps popping up everywhere – while his children keep nagging him to take them to Disneyland.

17 & 18 JUNE THEATER FRASCATI Nes 63 www.theaterfrascati.nl

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PART II ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

van gogh at work

Van Gogh: a portrait of the artist As the missing link in Museumplein’s triumvirate of cultural heavyweights reopens, curator of exhibitions Nienke Bakker puts us in the picture.

BEDROOM AT ARLES

text Megan Roberts

T

he Museumplein institution that bears Vincent van Gogh’s name – and a substantial proportion of his artistic output – has always been fittingly dynamic. But when the Gerrit Rietveld-designed building reopens this May following a period of remodelling – during which a capsule selection of its colourful treasures was presented at the Hermitage Amsterdam – there are still a few surprises in store.

While ostensibly shuttered to align the building, which turns 40 this year, with con-

temporary fire regulations, the museum’s curators didn’t waste the opportunity to do a little spring-cleaning themselves, painting nearly 11,000m2 of the gallery’s walls – but not the colour you’d expect.

Joining the ranks of elite art institutions that have foregone white in favour of warmer hues – London’s National Gallery, Paris’s Musée d’Orsay – for the jubilee exhibition Van Gogh at Work, the gallery walls will become an extension of the canvases they display: stormy

grey, vibrant cerulean and a pale blue that mirrors the walls of the artist’s bedroom in Arles. Splashes of chrome yellow are reserved for exceptional highlights – of which there are many, including original sketchbooks and the artist’s only surviving palette, on loan from the d’Orsay.

‘Van Gogh’s works look good against colour,’ says Nienke Bakker, the museum’s curator of exhibitions since 2010.

‘Plus the new décor adds to the unity of the collection.’

As well as celebrating the museum’s reopening and the

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join the 2013 party AMSTERDAM HERITAGE DAYS

Amsterdam Heritage Days

24H Zuid/Zuidoost

Granting special access to some of the city’s most dazzling – but usually hidden – gems, Amsterdam Heritage Days 2013 is a four-part open-door extravaganza celebrating the 400th jubilee of the stately Canal Ring that brought the city such prosperity during the Golden Age. This second installment focuses on architecture and life in the city centre in the 18th centre.

Keti Koti Festival’s Bigi Spikri

22 May, www.iamsterdam.com/ heritagedays

24H ZUID/ZUIDOOST The third edition of this unique event stops off in the south of the city, presenting all that the area has to offer in a blistering 24-hour period. Whether a local or a visitor, you’ll find plenty to discover, with businesses and institutions opening through the night. Highlights include an urban exploration of the flora of the Bijlmer with plant biologist Tet Roetman; a free openair dance performance by the revered Emio Greco|PC, presented by the Stedelijk Museum; Color Boost Zuidoost, combining a five-kilometre run and performance art; living room concerts and much more.

22 & 23 June, various locations www.iamsterdam.com/24h

160th anniversary of the artist’s birth, Van Gogh at Work, which contains some 200 pieces by the artist and his contemporaries, is also the culmination of nine years of intensive research into the painter’s technique and development. And while the museum’s new décor seems characteristic of Van Gogh’s palette, this research suggests that may not be the case.

‘The colours have faded – the reds especially,’ confirms Bakker. ‘Originally, the colours in “The Bedroom” would have been quite different.

During our research we found that Van Gogh had used a cheap pigment and the red had faded dramatically, turning the original violet of the walls to the pale blue we see today.’

A digital reconstruction displayed alongside the painting will reveal the original hues, and the curious can do a little research of their own, examining paint samples through the powerful microscopes used by the researchers.

There were more surprises: tiny sand particles found in

SELF-PORTRAIT

JANNES LINDERS

THE BIGI SPIKRI!

Van Gogh’s seascapes, and vegetative matter in his pastoral scenes, indicate that he painted on location. Evocative images of the artist in a field watching that seed-scatterer, or in that garden of irises spring to mind…

But the research did much more than simply place old works in a new light. ‘To restore a work, you first need to know what it is made of,’ says Bakker. ‘Now we’re better able to preserve Van Gogh’s incredible oeuvre.’

Here’s to the next 40 years and beyond.

The famed Dutch tolerance, it is little known, historically applied mainly to ways of making money. If that involved trading people against their will, the Dutch had no scruples about it.

From the start of the 17th century, the Dutch VOC’s counterpart in the west shipped African slaves to the Americas by the hundred thousands. This ugly past is commemorated each year on 1 July in Oosterpark, where the National Slavery monument stands. After the solemn ceremony, the multi-cultural Keti Koti Festival opens with the Bigi Spikri, band parade. The festival, comprising film, music, exhibitions and a fair, closes in the Stadsschouwburg with a performance of the opera Katibu di Shon (‘Slave and Master’) based on the slave revolt in Dutch Curacao in 1795.

1 July, Oosterpark www.ketikotiamsterdam.nl

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highlights

PART II ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Cultural overload

Straddling theatre, dance, music and more, the Holland Festival is your one-stop-shop for all manner of artistic enlightenment. text Toby Main

W

hat do Skyfall director Sam Mendes, Radiohead musician Jonny Greenwood and architect Zaha Hadid all have in common? Answer: they’ve all participated in the Holland Festival in recent years.

Despite its somewhat patriotic-sounding name, this annual talent showcase has a truly global perspective, with field-leading, boundary-pushing practitioners of all stripes convening on Amsterdam to collaborate, commune and create across countless artistic disciplines. What unites them, ironically, is discipline: if you’re on the Holland Festival programme, you’re the best in your business, whether that’s the business of mime or set design. Ticket sales for the big guns are understandably brisk, but such is the level of excellence here, it’s worth taking a punt on an unfamiliar name or two.

HIGHLIGHTS Since 2005, the French-Lebanese theatre director Pierre Audi has been at the Holland Festival helm, and he prides himself on having taken the festival – which started in 1947 – back to its roots via ‘a mix of all the performance arts, a mix of big names and a host of daring experiments’. Audi, echoing the Festival’s first artistic director and pioneer Peter Diamond, says it is his aim to present quality that the Dutch public cannot experience anywhere else.

Don’t tell Mr Audi this, but – given that so much of the programme is ‘language no prob-

THE WILD DUCK

ENO DESIGN

Upstart Australian director Simon Stone of Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre delivers a taut, critically acclaimed adaptation of Henrik ‘father or realism’ Ibsen’s modern classic, giving it a newfound fierceness and muscularity.

Stone literally puts his actors behind glass, turning the audience into voyeurs, spying on the characters as they struggle with unbearable truths. And a duck.

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2-4 JUNE Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Piet Heinkade 1 www.hollandfestival.nl

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don’t miss these

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ROLLING KITCHENS

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lem’ – we reckon this is also a pretty good opportunity for visitors to Amsterdam to get in on the act.

Or should that be ‘acts’? This year’s highlights include three performances of Desdemona, a part-play, part-concert about Shakespeare’s doomed heroine, as written by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison and directed by Peter Sellars. Elsewhere, young Dutch composer Michel van der Aa collaborates with English novelist David Mitchell (yes, he of Cloud Atlas) on Sunken Garden, a spooky ‘multimedia opera’ that ponders the connection between the disappearance of a software engineer, a glamour girl, a neurotic filmmaker and a patron of the arts. After one of the performances, Mitchell will be on hand to discuss the creative evolution of the project.

It’s one of many ‘Meet the Artist’ events that make the Holland Festival so memorable.

Free lunchtime concerts are another Holland Festival hallmark, and this year organisers have found a very exciting location for these, namely the famous busker-friendly underpass of the newly reopened Rijks Museum. Every Thursday during the festival, students from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague will present short musical performances here, working in themes that are complementary to the festival’s core programme.

1-26 JUNE Sunken Garden, 3-9 June, Stadsschouwburg Leidseplein 1 www.hollandfestival.nl

HEIDRUN LOHR

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If you like your meals on wheels, prepare to pig out.

From London to Chicago, much has been made of the so-called ‘food truck revolution’, whereby eating from a van is suddenly a gourmet pastime instead of a drunken guilty pleasure. Amsterdam has long been ahead of this culinary curve: The Weekend of Rolling Kitchens invites vanbased vendors from all around the Netherlands to pitch up in the Westerpark and dole out delicacies. With vans competing for your custom with colourful awnings, it’s a feast for the eyes as well as the belly.

KUNSTRAI

9-12 MAY, WESTERPARK www.rollendekeukens.nl

It’s the 29th edition of this popular but challenging contemporary art fair – the longest-running in the Netherlands, no less – which last year attracted more than 75 gallerists from around the country to Amsterdam’s largest convention space. Those on the hunt for the art world’s next big thing could do a lot worse than the RawEdges sidebar, which offers space to emerging young talents on favourable terms. And if you were wondering about the arresting knitted imagery on this year’s posters, that’s by graphic designer Anthon Beeke, who wanted to make a point about the masks used by artists and celebrities.

15-20 MAY, AMSTERDAM RAI Europaplein www.kunstrai.nl

PACHA FESTIVAL Kick-starting Amsterdam’s summer festival season (with or without the cooperation of the weather), Ibiza clubbing behemoth Pacha presents the second edition of the eponymous electro fest on Amsterdam’s Java Island. Legendary beat-meisters include John Digweed, Dennis Ferrer, Reboot, Sander Kleinenberg, Housequake and more, who’ll be running the gamut of electro music, from underground house to banging techno. New this year is the Flower Power Boat, a haven of free love and good vibes, with DJ Piti – the first man to grace the turntables at Pacha Ibiza – spinning the soundtrack of the ’60s, ’70s and beyond. If you didn’t pack fancy dress, don’t worry: pick up some appropriate threads at the Hippie Market.

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RALPH@LARMANN.COM

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18 MAY, JAVA ISLAND www.pachafestival.com

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PART II ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

highlights

The secret gardens Calling all green-fingered voyeurs: get a sneak peek at the private oases hidden behind the city’s historic canal houses.

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BARAKO

text Megan Roberts

T

here’s something deliciously thrilling about catching a glimpse of something you shouldn’t. That’s especially true of a city like Amsterdam, where although the residents remain stoically defiant about drawing their curtains, the impassive façades of the 17th-century canal houses offer little clue as to what’s hidden behind them. And it turns out what’s behind them is well worth a look.

‘It is not the historical monuments in the Canal Ring that earned UNESCO World Heritage status; it is the unique structure of canals, houses and gardens,’ explains Tonko Grever, curator of the Van Loon canal-house museum. ‘The problem is, you can’t usually see the gardens at all.’

Which is why Grever organises Amsterdam’s annual Open Garden Days, in which 30 of the most majestic canal-

side courtyards are accessible to some 90,000 members of the public for a three-day botanical bonanza. Of course, there are no original 17th-century gardens left, but some – like the elegantly understated Van Loon garden – are based on the original designs (formal, symmetrical box hedging and scenestealing water features), and they offer a wonderful glimpse into the lives of wealthy contemporary Amsterdammers.

But by no means do all the open gardens adhere to tradition: some are as free-spirited as the city itself, all riotous tumbling roses, twisty wisteria and sweet-scented jasmine juxtaposed by elegant rhododendrons and dense hydrangeas – and they’re a wonderful contrast, says Grever: ‘I like the combination of gardens: small, large, residential, commercial, privately maintained or with a team of professionals. It gives

a proper view of what these gardens really are – and why a law was passed to protect them at their inception 400 years ago that is still enforced today.’

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Open Garden Days – more surprising even than how peaceful they are, the song of countless birds in centuries-old copper beech and chestnut trees quickly replacing the city’s incessant urban hum – is that the only way to get to the gardens is through the houses. ‘You go through kitchens, lounges – sometimes even through residents’ bedrooms,’ confirms Grever.

‘People open their gardens to the public but also their lives. It’s extraordinary.’

AMSTERDAM OPEN GARDEN DAYS 14-16 JUNE, MUSEUM VAN LOON & ELSEWHERE Keizersgracht 672 www.opentuinendagen.nl

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featured artist ‘My music is really a reaction to all the tedium that I see in the world around me…’

don’t miss these LIFE: A USER’S MANUAL It doesn’t get much more radical than a play without words.

In this new, site-specific work from Swedish-born actor/choreographer/director Jakop Ahlbom, the audience is cast in the role of voyeur, as more and more people enter a large room in Amsterdam’s ice-cool Noord district. Despite its apparently reassuring title, Life: A User’s Manual seeks to confront its audience with the repetitive and frequently absurd nature of human experience.

As Ahlbom puts it, ‘I try to get people to look at “normal” behaviour with fresh eyes.’ If you’re looking to enjoy warehouse dining Noord-style, nearby Stork restaurant is offering a pre-theatre discount.

INTERNATIONAL THEATRE SCHOOL FESTIVAL Can you smell the ambition already? Every year at the end of June, the latest crop of performing arts graduates from around the world descends on Amsterdam to prove they’ve got what it takes to merit a long-lasting career. Comprising more than 50 unique performances, it’s a box-fresh opportunity to catch a glimpse of what’s on the horizon in the fields of acting, dance, mime and even film directing. Will you spot the Jennifer Lawrence or the Paul Verhoeven of tomorrow? One thing’s for sure: this is a unique way of seeing some of the city’s more intimate performance spaces.

JACCO GARDNER Born: 1989 (age 24) Talent: Dutch baroque pop wunderkind Performs: 22 May at Paradiso (Weteringschans 6) as part of Indiestad Festival ‘I was always busy writing songs – the first were rock songs but when I was 15 years old, I discovered the psychedelic Sixties sound of Syd Barrett with loads of strings, harpsichords and psychedelic arrangements.

Yet it also sounds like pop music. I knew immediately how my music should sound and the atmosphere it should evoke.’

6-26 MAY, DANSMAKERS AAN HET IJ Gedempt Hamerkanaal 203-205 www.theaterbellevue.nl

INDIESTAD FESTIVAL

21-28 JUNE, COMPAGNIETHEATER (AND OTHER LOCATIONS) Kloveniersburgwal 50 www.itsfestivalamsterdam.com

Musical trends come and go (urchin rock, anyone?), but indie is the sonic gift that keeps on giving – mainly because it’s a genre that’s allowed to keep reinventing itself. Each year, veteran music venue Paradiso opens its storied doors to some of the most talented practitioners of independent music from all over the planet. You can buy a passe-partout or cherry pick from a list that includes international indie-folk outfit Stornoway (pictured) and Californian sensation The Growlers. A distinct part of the programme, ‘London Calling’ (24 & 25 May) originated as a showcase for the most promising up-andcoming acts taking the UK by storm; these days, all nationalities grace the line-up.

18-26 MAY, PARADISO (AND OTHER LOCATIONS) Weteringschans 6 www.indiestad.nl

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highlights

PART II ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ArtZuid

Get en route for a sculpture stroll with some seriously engaging eye candy. text Toby Main

W

hen most of us want to get to know our neighbours, we might drop a cake next door.

Not Cintha van Heeswijk. In 2008, when the international lawyer decided to reach out to her fellow residents of PlanZuid – the area just south of central Amsterdam characterised by its wide boulevards by prominent architect HP Berlage – she took a more ambitious approach, organising a summer-long outdoor art walk. In its third edition this year, ArtZuid hopes to attract some 500,000 visitors with another eye-popping collection of large-scale sculptures submitted by first-class artists from all over the world.

‘I noticed that, unlike cosier districts of Amsterdam, the street layout here means that you rarely run into your neighbours,’ recalls Van Heeswijk of ArtZuid’s conception.

She turned the relative abundance of space to her advantage, recognising Plan-Zuid’s potential as a showcase for art on a grand scale. The 2011 edition was opened by Queen Beatrix, no less, and the initia-

tive has won praise and international awards for bringing life and colour to the neighbourhood, not to mention a whole load of culture-vulture visitors.

This year’s iteration is the most ambitious yet, displaying the work of 52 artists whose enormous works have been shipped from 25 different countries to take up their four-month residencies on those leafy avenues. ‘I’m just grateful that Amsterdam is a port!’ jokes Van Heeswijk.

The theme of this year’s exhibition is ‘Engagement’. Space has been reserved for a host of non-Western artists such as Dinh Q. Lê, the Vietnamese talent whose hand-crafted white helicopter apparently speaks of successive generations’ attitudes towards the Vietnam War. Another star turn is the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who continues to risk his freedom for his commentary on government corruption and cover-ups.

22 MAY-22 SEPTEMBER PLAN-ZUID DISTRICT www.artzuid.nl

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Because there are some stories that Instagram just can’t tell…

text Toby Main

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nyone who has come to doubt the value of professional news photography in the age of the smartphone-wielding ‘citizen journalist’ should make time for this eye opener.

The travelling World Press Photo exhibition was established 55 years ago and celebrates the planet’s most prestigious photojournalism.

As with many editions before it, the recipient of this year’s overall prize – a heart-breaking image by Swedish photographer Paul Hansen in which the bodies of two small children are carried by a group of men down an alleyway in the Gaza Strip – is a sobering depiction of the suffering caused by human conflict, its impact indisputable.

Mayu Mohanna, a jury member from Peru, said of the image: ‘The strength of the pictures lies in the way it contrasts the anger and sorrow of the adults with the innocence of the children.’

Jury chairman Santiago Lyon is keen to stress the diversity of current affairs images submitted for his team’s consideration in a news year that hasn’t been short of big stories: ‘There were images that

came out of stories in Latin America, there were images that came out of the European economic crisis in Spain.’

As well as the gritty, sometimes confrontational realism of the submissions across ‘Spot News’ and ‘Contemporary Issues’, the competition has categories including ‘Sports Action’ and ‘Observed Portraits’. And it’s worth remembering that the news isn’t always a matter of doom, gloom and destruction: ‘There were features on women playing basketball in Somalia, nature pictures shot under the sea of whale sharks and penguins,’ says Lyon.

World Press Photo stops off in Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk as part of an astonishing 45country journey that typically attracts an audience of more than two million. Of all the opportunities to see this work that takes in the sacred, the profane and everything in between, there can be few more enticing than here in Amsterdam, in the cavernous church smack bang in the middle of the Red Light District.

UNTIL 23 JUNE, OUDE KERK Oudekerksplein 23 www.worldpressphoto.org

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PAUL HANSEN, DAGENS WYHETER

ROMAULD HAZOUME. PHOTO FLORIAN KLEINEFENN

World Press Photo 2013

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13 questions Annet Lekkerkerker, managing director of international performing arts extravaganza the Holland Festival, gives you her take on Amsterdam.

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text Megan Roberts photo Mark van der Zouw

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‘Amsterdammers are a little cocky’ 1. WHAT IS YOUR FIRST AMSTERDAM MEMORY? When I was 14, my parents divorced and my mother moved to Amsterdam. I stayed in Enschede during the week, and visited her on weekends. I would skip school on Fridays, catch the early train and just walk around the city by myself, taking different, progressively more indirect routes from Central Station to my mother’s house.

2. FAVOURITE AMSTERDAMRELATED WORK OF ART? At first you think of Rembrandt, and of course ‘The Night Watch’ – but for me it would be the works of [George Hendrik] Breitner. He painted everyday life, like snapshots on canvas.

His work was revolutionary.

3. WHAT SHOULD SOMEONE DO WITH A SINGLE DAY IN AMSTERDAM? Walk around the canals, have lunch somewhere with a view – like the EYE Film Institute on

the northern bank of the IJ – then pick one museum, the Rijks Museum, Stedelijk or Amsterdam Museum, and end the day with a drink at the bar at the top of the Okura Hotel, on the 23rd floor. You get the most wonderful views.

4. FAVOURITE STATUE? It’s by Jan de Baat [19212010], on the Apollolaan.  It’s like a steel flag, and it’s a monument to the Canadian military, who helped liberate Amsterdam in 1945.

5. IN WHICH BUILDING WOULD YOU LIKE TO SPEND THE NIGHT? Somewhere high up – or on the water. You get new perspectives.

6. WHAT IS THE BEST CHARACTERISTIC OF YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS? They’re a little cocky. All individuals, with strong opinions, eager to experiment, all free thinkers, daring and innovative…

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7. THE WORST? See above! The two things go together, like two sides of the same coin. Amsterdammers always say, ‘Yes, but—’. Amsterdammers are always criticising; nothing is ever good enough.

8. FAVOURITE MODE OF TRANSPORTATION? Every Amsterdammer would say the bike: they’re affordable, everyone has one and they’re convenient.

9. TELL US ONE THING WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE CITY. We’ve got really mice noncentral neighbourhoods – De Baarsjes in the west; De Indische Buurt in the east.

They’re multicultural neighbourhoods in transition. The ‘real’ Amsterdam is not in the city centre; you find the real spirit of the place – the inventiveness, the creativity – all happening in these neighbourhoods.

10. WHERE IS THE BEST VIEW OF AMSTERDAM? From the water. Everyone should see the canals from the water. Or take the free ferry to Amsterdam-Noord.

11. FAVOURITE AMSTERDAM DELICACY ?

Bread from Hartog’s bakery on Ruyschstraat (www.volkoren brood.nl). They make the best brown bread. If I’m away from the city, I really miss it.

12. TOP RESTAURANT? Wilde Zwijnen  on Javaplein in De Indische Buurt (http:// wildezwijnen.com). They use local food, very fresh, and lots of Dutch ingredients. Plus it’s in my neighbourhood!

13. FAVOURITE PUBLIC BUILDING? It has to be the Rijks Museum.

We’ve been without it for so long – ten years. We’re all so happy it’s reopened in its full glory, more beautiful than ever before.

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PART II ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

film

Fairy-tale Tuschinski Amsterdam boasts more art-house cinemas than any other European city, and the historic Tuschinski is the jewel in the art-deco crown.

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IWAN BAAN

text Bregtje Schudel

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PATHÉ TUSCHINSKI Reguliersbreestraat 26 www.pathe.nl/bioscoop/tuschinski

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f your hectic itinerary permits just one cinema visit, head to the Pathé Tuschinski – even if movies don’t necessarily rock your boat. If you only have a minute or two to spare, nip in for a quick look at the fairy-tale foyer, largely designed by art-deco interiors expert Jaap Gidding.

Built in 1921 by Polish tailorturned-entrepreneur Abraham Icek Tuschinski and costing a whopping 4 million Dutch guilders, the Tuschinski boasts an eclectic but exciting architectural mix of Jugendstil, art deco and the expressionist Amsterdam School. Tuschinski wanted to

build a luxurious fairy-tale theatre, but one that would also be accessible to the common man.

Abraham Tuschinski’s own life sadly did not have a fairytale ending. His magnificent theatre went bankrupt in 1936, its beautiful murals covered with thick layers of paint and wallpaper. During the Second World War the Nazis took over the theatre and gave it the (non-Jewish) name Tivoli. Tuschinski himself died in Auschwitz in 1942.

It would take until 2002 before the Tuschinski Theater – now owned by the Pathé chain – was restored to its for-

mer glory. The extensive renovation took four years, but now the Tuschinski is as beautiful as ever.

If you have time for a movie – and prize ambiance over substance – ask to see a film in Theatre 1, the centre- and masterpiece of the Tuschinski, with its enormous spider lamp and its 18 luscious ladies casually hanging out on the ceiling.

When not hosting star-spangled premieres, Theatre 1 is designated for more mainstream – often English-language – films; the five other theatres (three of which are in a modern annex) generally screen more art-house fare.

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highlight a must-see in the Tuschinski this issue…

Highlights of high art

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go see these THE GREAT GATSBY The movies of Baz Luhrmann may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but at least he doesn’t shy away from big gestures – or big classics.

Some 17 years after his Romeo + Juliet he lends his unmistakable visual flourish to Fitzgerald’s iconic The Great Gatsby.

Direction: Baz Luhrmann Release: 16 May

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED The best sci-fi pictures tend to be the ones without too much sci-fi. Here, the science fiction may only exist in the head of one sad, lonely man (the imminently likable Mark Duplass), who places a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.

Direction: Colin Trevorrow Release: 6 June

msterdam offers a plethora of cultural pleasures, but for some delicacies – say, the Bolshoi Ballet or the Metropolitan Opera – you still have to go abroad. Or you did until now. A few times a month the Tuschinski (and other cinemas around the globe) hosts ‘live’ screenings of international highlights of ‘high art’, from the Bolshoi’s Romeo & Juliet (12 May) to Handel’s classic opera Giulio Cesare by the NY Met (also 12 May). Of special interest to film fans will be The Audience on 13 June, beamed directly from London’s National Theatre, in which Dame Helen Mirren will revisit her Oscar-winning role of Queen Elizabeth II from The Queen (2006). For 60 years Elizabeth II has met her Prime Minister of the day – from Winston Churchill to David Cameron – in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. Director Stephen Daldry and writer Peter Morgan (who also penned The Queen) break this contract of silence, imagining some of these pivotal public/private meetings through time.Nominated for five Olivier Awards – including Best New Play and, of course, Best Actress.

TWO MOTHERS

THE SAPPHIRES

Lil (Naomi Watts) and Roz (Robin Wright) have been best friends since kindergarten. But when they start to fall for each other’s sons, things get a little more complicated... A brave adaptation of the short story by Doris Lessing.

Hailed as the Aboriginal Dreamgirls, The Sapphires follows the story of four real life Aboriginal women who travel to Vietnam to boost the morale of the American troops – and their career. The Sapphires is a sweet feelgood film, with Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) as the girls’ manager.

The Audience by the National Theatre.

Direction: Stephen Daldry.

Screening: 13 June, 20.00, €12.50.

ROBBY MÜLLER

Direction: Anne Fontaine Release: 16 May

AMSTERDAM SERIES WEEKEND & FESTIVAL CINÉMA ARABE Feeling festive? Then these two festivals are definitively worth your notice. Amsterdam Series Weekend shows TV series on the big screen, while the fifth edition of Cinéma Arabe celebrates Arabic film.

ASW: 24-26 May, Westergasfabriek, www.amsterdamseries weekend.com FCA: 8-26 May, Rialto, Ceintuurbaan 338, www.cinemaarabe.nl

EYE pays homage to one of Holland’s most celebrated cinematographers: Robby Müller, frequent collaborator of Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas), Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man) and Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark). EYE will be showing 21 of his classics.

23 May-16 June, EYE Film Institute, IJpromenade 1, www.eyefilm.nl

BEFORE MIDNIGHT In Before Sunrise (1995) two youths shared one passionate night; in Before Sunset (2004) they reunited for a day. Now Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) are finally an item.

But has their romance survived being together 24/7?

Direction: Richard Linklater Release: 6 June

Direction: Wayne Blaire Release: 13 June

DARK HORSE Film critic Roger Ebert phrased it perfectly: ‘[Director Todd Solondz] has never met a character he didn’t dislike.’

Sad sack Abe (Jordan Gelber) fits right in with the other misfits of Solondz-ville (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness). Also with Christopher Walken and Mia Farrow.

Direction: Todd Solondz Release: 20 June

FRANCES HA The characters in films by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg) may not be as socially deficient as those in the movies of Solondz, but they are definitely awkward. Still, you can’t help but love 27-yearold Frances (Greta Gerwig) and her clumsy attempts to grow up.

Direction: Noah Baumbach Release: 20 June

WEST SIDE STORY – LIVE In the majestic Royal Theater Carré, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra will play one of the most celebrated musical scores of all time (by Leonard Bernstein) alongside a screening of the 1961 classic.

23 June, Royal Theater Carré, Amstel 115, www.carre.nl

in mei o.a.

Hong Kong Film Panorama

Festival met de nieuwste films uit Hong Kong 5 t/m 14 mei

The Grandmaster van Wong-Kar-wai Première vanaf 9 mei

Oog in oog met Robby Müller

Cameraman van Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch en Lars von Trier, 23 mei t/m 16 juni

Johan van der Keuken / Tegen het licht

Tentoonstelling en filmprogramma, t/m 9 juni

Info & tickets: www.eyefilm.nl

EYE_AD_AMAG_15-04-2013.indd 1

The Museums Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, Geelvinck Hinlopen Huis, Cromhouthuizen and Willet-Holthuysen present Canal Stories: a tour of Amsterdam in Dutch, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish, packed with information about the amazing people who made their home in these magnificent historical houses.

Each residence highlights a different period of history, providing a fascinating insight into life in Amsterdam down the centuries with an array of personal stories.

The guide is available at participating museums for just € 2,www.amsterdammuseum.com/canalstories

09-04-13 16:22

may & jun 2013

PART III

EAT DRINK CHIC ‘I I LOVE WALKING THROUGH THE BACKSTREETS OF THE HAARLEMMERBUURT NEIGHBOURHOOD; IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU CAN HEAR THE POSTHOORN CHURCH BELLS.’ photographer Trevor Llewellyn on his ’hood

For an out-of-the-ordinary taste of Amsterdam, hop across the River IJ to hip and happening Noord, where CAFÉ MODERN serves tempting seasonal dishes like wild sockeye salmon marinated in beetroot and almondcrusted sardines with succulent wild peach.

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NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH: THE HAARLEMMERBUURT EATING OUT RAISING THE BAR DAIRY DREAM PRETTY THINGS WHAT’S IN STORE

HUTSPOT The brainchild of four bright young things, the Utrechtsestraat’s formerly pop-up concept store Hutspot (Dutch for ‘hotspot’ and, rather less glamorously, a mashed potato, carrot and onion dish) has gone concrete in De Pijp. Conceived to offer young designers a commercial outlet, in the cavernous new premises (800m2), 50-odd brands sell jewellery, clothes, homeware, books and more. With a café, a gallery space and even yoga classes, you could easily lose an afternoon here – and haemorrhage some serious cash.

Van Woustraat 4 www.hutspotamsterdam.com

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PART III EAT, DRINK & CHIC

Neighbourhood watch

neighbourhood watch

HAARLEMMERBUURT NIKOS AKRIVOS, 42

energetic healer, lifestyle coach and DJ (from Greece)

‘I’m really excited about opening my new spiritual shop here, because the Haarlemmerbuurt has such positive energy. I really like the atmosphere and environment.’

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The Haarlemmerbuurt may be one of the smallest Amsterdam neighbourhoods, but it packs a serious punch. text & photos Marie-Charlotte Pezé

Shoppers’ delight

A

stone’s throw to the west of Central Station, the Haarlemmerbuurt is announced by the fresh herring stand on the lovely bridge over the Singel. If you manage to make it alive through the intersection (where dozens of pedestrians, bikes and motor vehicles somehow achieve a complex choreography without colliding), it is like stepping into a parallel, more enticing universe. The loud hustle of the city centre suddenly recedes into the background, giving way to a long, lively street bordered by quiet, charming lanes that branch off towards the canals of the Jordaan.

‘Haarlemmerstraat, and its continuation, the Haarlemmerdijk, make a very long street: they have more than 250 shops,’ boasts Nel De Jager, the Winkelstraatmanager (literally, Manager of the Shopping Street). De Jager has been caring for the neighbourhood since 1987. ‘It had turned into a no-man’s land. The residents had moved away, the shops had closed.

The local government didn’t believe it had a chance at a new life. They shrugged and said, “Supermarkets,

maybe?” But I disagreed.’ You can tell from her no-nonsense attitude that it is De Jager’s dedication, her powers of diplomacy and the immense affection she carries for the neighbourhood that resurrected it from the ashes.

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT ‘There is a concept behind the street, and that is all thanks to Nel,’ says Jan Fictoor, the owner of Egidius, the antique bookshop that has been standing on Haarlemmerstraat for decades. The area focuses on the idea of ‘one building, one shop’. The community stands strong against the invasion of big brands and is very proud of its identity. ‘We could drop you in the centre of many Dutch cities and you would have no way to differentiate them. It’s always the same brands, the same shops. But not here,’ adds Fictoor.

By introducing property owners to young, independent and passionate shopkeepers, De Jager makes sure the area retains its flair, walking the tight rope of maintaining its cohesion while promoting variety.

The twin streets won the ‘Best Shopping Street in the Netherlands’ award

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neighbourhood watch

PART III EAT, DRINK & CHIC

The long, lively street boasts bespoke design shops, bustling cafés and independent fashion boutiques.

STORE WITHOUT A HOME The name of this former popup shop is a non-sequitur now that it’s found a permanent address – but also because you’ll want to bring home every single item from their lovely design collection.

Owner Janwillem Sanderse focuses on offering exclusive, unique pieces, which often have an international flair. He steers clear of the obvious, and instead picks whatever appeals to his own taste – which, we must say, is simply impeccable.



Haarlemmerdijk 26 http://storewithoutahome. blogspot.nl

MARBLES VINTAGE & DESIGN A new kid on the block, this lovely two-storey shop stocks the best quality vintage, with brands including Betty Barclay and Escada – and the exciting rare find like Dior or YSL. If the shop is filled to the brim with affordable garments and accessories, what makes the place truly special is the owner’s warm welcome, and her contagious love for the creativity of her craft.

Haarlemmerdijk 64

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last year, and it’s no wonder: they represent an entire kilometre of entertainment, with an independent cinema (The Movies), seven coffeeshops, dozens of cafés and restaurants and a plethora of stores, each packing their own personality.

Unique design shops rub shoulders with trendy clothes boutiques, from the high end (Sukha, Tenue de Nîmes) through the middle (Luba, Dizzy) to a handful of surprisingly affordable vintage treasure troves. ‘I always dreamed of having my shop here,’ says Joosje Engels, owner of the freshly opened Marbles Vintage & Design. ‘It still breathes the genuine Amsterdam.’

‘You can do everything here,’ says Chanel Loquet, a local resident. ‘There’s fresh fish and meat, fruits and vegetables – and even a Marqt organic supermarket has just opened.’ And indeed, the quality food shops abound: Meeuwig specialises in oils while t’Zonnetje focuses on coffee beans; Unlimited Delicious is often touted as the best chocolate-maker in the city, and their French patisserie is equally praise-worthy. Vinnie’s, Stout, Le Sud, Sane and many more cafés offer fresh salads and sandwiches, often with an exotic twist; and within a block of each other, both Hollandaluz and Ibericus honour southern palates with wide selections of cured hams. Every first Saturday of September for the past 14 years, the neighbourhood food joints take over the streets for a bustling culinary festival where hundreds of visitors dine on the pavement.

With her charismatic smile, De Jager emphasises: ‘We are more than a succession of shops: we are a community. People here have a real relationship with the shopkeepers. The residents come from all kinds of different backgrounds; there are immigrants, elderly people, students, families. The one thing they all agree on, is that Haarlemmerbuurt has a really great spirit.’

All the shops mentioned above are on the Haarlemmerdijk and Haarlemmerstraat.

DELPHINE VAN DEN BRINK, 36 programme manager (from France)

‘This neighbourhood is safe and the backstreets are quiet, open and clean. My son loves the playground on Herenmarkt.’

TREVOR LLEWELLYN, 40 photographer

‘I love walking through the backstreets; it’s so beautiful, especially when you can hear the Posthoorn Church bells.’

Ha arl em me rdi jk Bro uw ers gr ac ht

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Vin ke ns tra at

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 Ha arl em me rstra at

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Bro uw ersg racht

  

VESPER

LUBA

There are few places that still exhale such old-world class as Vesper, and calling it a bar almost seems like an insult: this place is a shrine to cocktails. Maybe because of its modest proportions, it magically achieves a subdued liveliness that never borders on loud and agitated; as hushed and velvety as the décor, the atmosphere is swanky without being snobbish, a real cocoon of intimacy.

Forget about whatever is the new black: Luba’s racks are stocked with an array of colourful garments and accessories that redefine trendy and chic. Owners Els and Simone are always on the lookout for special, unique pieces from hard-to-find designers. Tried and true, the shop has been around for 17 years, and they’ve already opened two new outposts in Oud-West and De Pijp.



Vinkenstraat 57 www.vesperbar.nl

Haarlemmerstraat 12a www.luba-amsterdam.nl

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neighbourhood watch

PART III EAT, DRINK & CHIC

We are more than a succession of shops: we are a community..’

DE DAMPKRING COFFEESHOP With three floors of spacious lounge areas and large airy windows, Dampkring is the place to get high in style.

Clean and cosy, with its walls of trippy art and videos, it’s definitely not your run-ofthe-mill coffeeshop. Their wide variety of products is of the greatest quality – and for the most part organic. The staff are consistently helpful and informative.

Haarlemmerstraat 44 www.dampkring.nl

WEST-INDISCH HUIS

MEEUWIG & ZN If one place could get you excited about oil and vinegar, it’s Meeuwig. For 16 years, the owners have travelled the world to find the best products. There’s something precious about the wall of virgin oil barrels and glass bottles, and the vast selection makes you feel like you’re visiting a palace of liquid gold. The deliciousness doesn’t stop there: they also carry excellent deli fare.

Haarlemmerstraat 70 www.meeuwig.nl

The West-Indisch Huis hides its colourful past well. Stately but not ostentatious, it sits on the quiet Herenmarkt square.

Originally constructed in 1617 as a meat market, it was soon rented by the Dutch West India Company, which gave the building its name. It is between these four walls that the famous merchant company colonised the Caribbean and the Americas until 1647. It was here that, in 1625, the Dutch West India Company’s 19 governors ordered the construction of a fort that would later become… New York City.

For a century and a half after its illustrious prime, it became a basic hotel before being converted to an orphanage and home for the elderly. Destroyed by a fire in 1975, it was renovated by the City at great expense, and is today one of the most coveted wedding venues in Amsterdam.

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STOUT There’s nothing more relaxing than spending a sunny spring afternoon lazing on the giant plump mattresses laid out on Stout’s terrace.

This staple neighbourhood café is the perfect mix of natty and laid-back, and the staff are as friendly as the menu is fresh and original.

Every dish is a delight, from breakfast to dinner, and even the snack menu stands out in a sea of bitterballen.

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Haarlemmerstraat 73 www.restaurantstout.nl

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PART III EAT, DRINK & CHIC

EATING OUT

Our top dining options, from firm favourites to precocious newcomers.

eating out

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

text Zin (Famke & Floor van Praag)

NRC RESTAURANT CAFÉ

W

NEW IN TOWN

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Rokin 55 www.nrcrestaurantcafe.nl

JAAP DIJKMAN ARCHITECTS

hen a journalist says he or she is ‘having dinner at the paper’, it usually means they’ll be eating a bland microwaved ready-meal sitting behind their laptop. But not any more: quality Dutch daily NRC decided to offer their staff a more sophisticated option: an actual restaurant (no canteens here) with high quality, freshly-prepared food. And now the really good news for those of us who don’t work for NRC: it’s open to everyone.

The smartly designed space – think plenty of glass and open spaces; look up from your plate and you’ll see journalists sweating to reach their deadlines – in the city centre can accommodate no fewer than 250 people for lunch, drinks or dinner. On the menu is French brasserie-style food and the occasional British anomaly (fish and chips – served in yesterday’s paper, of course). Expect well-executed dishes such as mustard-watercress soup with cod; homemade paté with cornichons; and entrecôte with red-wine sauce and fries. And the wines are excellent too. No surprise there: journalists and wine pair rather well.

39 trendy CONSERVATORIUM HOTEL While not brand new – it opened its revolving doors early 2012 – this five-star hotel remains the place to see and be seen for fashionistas, art lovers and trendsetters. Located between the city’s most important museums, the 19th-century former bank-turned music conservatory was transformed by star architect Piero Lissoni. The spacious, glass-enclosed lobbylounge is a perfect for a coffee stop-off or informal brasserie fare, but the real jewel is Tunes Restaurant: Chef Schilo van Coevorden packs each seasonal dish – think Texel lamb with sweat breads – with surprising flavours and textures.

Van Baerlestraat 27 www.conservatoriumhotel.com

critics’ choice CAFÉ MODERN

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or an out-of-the-ordinary taste of Amsterdam, hop across the River IJ to hip and happening Noord – only a five-minute ride by ferry from Central Station and hands down one of the coolest areas of the city. Right behind the striking EYE Film Institute building, you’ll find Café Modern, like a desert flower in a somewhat bleak residential area. The walls of this former bank are soft, summery yellow and green, bedecked with a golden fixed-gear road bike. The vintage tables are set with crispy white linen, and old school chairs seat the somewhat arty clientele. Although they only offer a table d’hote set menu (five courses for a reasonable €40), you won’t be disappointed. Expect the lovely seasonal dishes to include the likes of wild sockeye salmon marinated in beetroot, soft-shell crab accompanied by strips of bacon and black-bean purée or almond-crusted sardines with succulent wild peach.

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Meidoornweg 2 www.modernamsterdam.nl

classic CAFÉ LUXEMBOURG

quick & simple STACH Stach’s two organic delis offer a wide range of delicious and, for the most part, healthy dishes.

Both locations stock tasty staples including wood-oven-cooked pizza, Thai vegetable curry and grilled pepper & goat’s cheese salad. The dinner options are a tasty – and affordable – alternative to the standard greasy takeaway.

Van Woustraat 154 www.stach-food.nl

 & Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 52

Café Luxembourg looks exactly like it did 25 years ago: a stately ‘Parisian-style’ grand café with a long bar, art deco elements and communal reading table complete with abundant newspapers and magazines. The brasserie-style menu features predictable classics including Caesar salad, lobster bisque and Holtkamp croquettes (Holland’s finest, made with veal, cheese or prawns). Opt for a seat on the enclosed terrace, which offers views of the bustling Spui, arguably the best spot for people-watching in town.

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Spui 24 www.luxembourg.nl

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PART III EAT, DRINK & CHIC

RAISING THE BAR

Raise a glass to the city’s best pubs, bars, cafés & more. text Megan Roberts

top terraces

hotel bars

music bars

NEL

THE COLLEGE HOTEL

JAZZCAFÉ ALTO

Located on the pretty Amstelveld square conveniently close to the Utrechtsestraat and Rembrandtplein, if it weren’t for the kitsch white picket fence it’d be hard to tell where NeL’s terrace ends and the shady piazza begins – which is what makes it such a great place to while away a lazy Sunday with the kids in the sunshine.

Housed in a restored 19th-century school gym – and boasting an impressive terrace – this light, open space serves up marvellous Dutch food with a modern twist and superlative cocktails. The whole enterprise is a training centre for catering students, so be patient and you’ll be rewarded with an affordable – and truly hospitable – night out.

In one of the more touristy parts of town is one of the few real jazz cafés in the city. Alto has been around for a good 60 years and has seen its share of choice jazz musicians. Hans Dulfer (Candy’s father) performs in the small dark café every Wednesday night. You don’t need an entrance ticket but make sure you’re early to get one of the front tables.

Amstelveld 12 http://nelamstelveld.nl

Roelof Hartstraat 1 www.collegehotel.com

Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 115 www.jazz-cafe-alto.nl

CAFÉ VAN ZUYLEN

IZAKAYA

MALOE MELO

Van Zuylen’s interior may be dark and cosy, but the main appeal here is the epic waterside terrace, on the Canal Belt’s broadest bridge next to the Multatuli statue on Singel. With room for around 100 punters, service can be slow – but with full sun from breakfast to sundowner o’clock, who cares?

Arrive early for a table.

Located inside the chic new Sir Albert hotel in De Pijp, Izakaya means ‘pub’ in Japanese, and while head chef Hariprasad Shetty (formerly of Nobu in London) serves up delicious Japanese fair – think sashimi, sushi and tempura – the wine list features more than 300 vintages, and the cocktail menu is equally impressive.

An internationally renowned family-run blues bar, which has welcomed everyone from Joe Cocker to the Blasters. These days, the soundtrack runs the gamut from rockabilly to folk, and the atmosphere – and décor – are very much in keeping with the vibe: dingy, beerstained, casual. In short: wonderful.

Torensteeg 4-8 www.cafevanzuylen.nl

Albert Cuypstraat 2-6 www.izakaya-amsterdam.com

Lijnbaansgracht 163 www.maloemelo.com

WILHELMINA-DOK

SKYLOUNGE

DE NIEUWE ANITA

Diagonally opposite Central Station, on the other side of the water, is café-restaurant Wilhelmina-Dok. The sundrenched patio has a gorgeous view over the city, and the continually rotating menu boasts classic dishes as well as more unusual ones, like stewed veal cheek, camembert cheese fondue or saffron ravioli with ricotta and hazelnuts.

On the 11th floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton near Amsterdam Central Station is the super-sleek and stylish SkyLounge. While in most big-city terms being 11 floors up is nothing, in flatas-a-pancake Amsterdam, that’s pretty impressive – and SkyLounge makes the most of it with wrap-around terraces, expertly mixed cocktails and amazing views.

Styled like a hipster’s front room (all mismatched old armchairs and vintage wallpaper) De Nieuwe Anita hosts intimate gigs by local bands in the alternative genre, from punk klezmer to lo-fi. Beer is cheap and entertainment is wonderfully varied, from arts ’n’ crafts evenings through cult film screenings to cheap haircuts.

Noordwal 1 www.wilhelmina-dok.nl

Oosterdoksstraat 4 http://doubletree3.hilton.com

Frederik Hendrikstraat 111 www.denieuweanita.nl

raising the bar

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DAIRY DREAM

Have your cake and eat it too.

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riginating in sunny California, frozen yoghurt is taking the somewhat less salubrious climes of Amsterdam by storm. And no wonder: ‘FroYo’ is the ultimate ‘healthy’ comfort food.

Made of deliciously creamy plain yoghurt, frozen on the spot, this tangy-tasting snack is low in calories (made with milk, unlike ice cream) but loaded with proteins and calcium and contains no artificial flavours or colours. It’s usually served with fresh fruit, nuts, granola or even chopped-up brownies (somewhat less healthy, of course).

Frozz was the first shop to sell fresh frozen Dutch yoghurt in Amster-

dam, and they must have been doing well in spite of the uncooperative weather: they already have three shops around town. Not surprisingly, other entrepreneurs have quickly followed in their footsteps.

FROZZ Leidsestraat 69, De Bijenkorf 5th floor, Utrechtsestraat 27 www.frozz.com FROZEN YOGHURT COMPANY Utrechtsestraat 115 www.frozenyoghurtcompany.com KOEL Zeedijk 127 www.hetiskoel.nl

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PART III EAT, DRINK & CHIC

pretty things

PRETTY THINGS Purses at the ready: these tempting stores will have you reaching for your credit card. text Zin (Famke & Floor van Praag)

GOOD GENES

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NEW IN TOWN

WHAT: Spanking new denim/lifestyle brand Good Genes has opened a flagship store, studio and showroom in De Pijp. The new luxe brand, founded by the same Dutch entrepreneur who started cult fave Blue Blood jeans, offers premium denim products, classic essentials and exquisite Italian tailoring for him and her.

INTERIOR: Stylish and dark, a little rugged around the edges – think rough concrete floors, exposed brick and industrial lighting. Bolts of denim cloth and wooden worktables drive home the ‘handmade’ message. A stuffed rooster wear-

ing a saddle (who also graces the logo) and other assorted taxidermy are dotted about the place.

COLLECTION: High-quality jeans in assorted fits: skinny, slim, straight, tapered and chino. So far, so the Gap. What takes these denims to the next level – and commands a price tag of up to €200 per pair – is the raw materials. Each pair is lovingly crafted from pure Italian and Japanese selvedge: a premium twill that weaves the crossthread back and forth in a continuous loop so the fabric won’t unravel or fray. They also stock classic essentials: knitwear made from baby alpaca wool, biker-style shearling coats and slender-fit suits and shirts.

MUST HAVE: For her: skinny jeans (€180) made of 100 per cent selvedge stretch denim, a world first. For him: His Tailored Jacket No.1 in denim (€800), a slim-fit luxecasual number, with iconic orange stitching at the buttonholes.

CONCLUSION: A beautiful store for lovers of understated denim, who are prepared to pay a premium for the best quality. On the website Good Genes claim to make clothes for people who ‘go out and do stuff ’, rather than just talk about it: the builders and the makers, the movers and the shakers. That sounds about right.

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Albert Cuypstraat 33-35 www.thegoodgenes.com

43 designer department store OPTIONS! Attached to hotel The Exchange, a beacon of taste amongst the neon tat of Damrak, OPTIONS! is a contemporary boutique department store, stocking an extensive range – from stationery, ceramics, furniture, clothing and magazines to bespoke products from upcoming and established international interior and fashion designers. This is the place to go for outof-the-ordinary gadgets, gifts and souvenirs.

design books

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Damrak 49 www.optionsamsterdam.com

MENDO Located in the picturesque Nine Streets, MENDO is a candy store for design aficionados. A beautifully designed shop, it stocks coffee-table books on fashion, food, photography, architecture, interior and graphic design. They also have limited XL editions on display: impossibly large, extremely rare and expensively exclusive.

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Berenstraat 11 www.mendo.nl

classic SHOEBALOO Shoebaloo has been the place to go for high-end designer footwear for years. It all started in the Seventies with a small shop in the Jordaan selling Spanish boots. In the early Nineties they relocated to Koningsplein, where the men’s shop still resides today, and changed their focus to designer brands. More shops followed: on the exclusive PC Hooftstraat, Cornelis Schuytstraat and Leidsestraat they opened sleek shops which women frequent for their shot of designer heels and it-bags from international cutting-edge labels.

Leidsestraat 8 Cornelis Schuytstraat 9  

Koningsplein 7 (men) PC Hooftstraat 80 www.shoebaloo.nl

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PART III EAT, DRINK & CHIC

what’s in store

WHAT’S IN STORE These fashion-forward style emporiums will have you (m/f) turning heads.

    

text Zin (Famke & Floor van Praag)

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290SQM (M/F)

FRETONS (M/F)

Situated in the cavernous basement of an old bank near Waterlooplein, 290sqm is a true place of discovery. The industrial space is stocked with a unique selection of shoes, clothes, bags, books, music, magazines and art from brands including Nike, A.P.C., Our Legacy, Freitag, S.N.S. Herning and Mini Rodini for kids. We defy you to leave empty handed.

Accomplished shoe designer Fred de la Bretonniere is the creative force behind ‘Fretons’, a sub-label for more relaxed footwear. Fretons are casual urban sneakers made from high-quality leather or soft suede. The brand new brand store is located in the South of Amsterdam and offers a comprehensive collection for both men and women.

Houtkopersdwarsstraat 3 www.290sqm.com

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Jacob Obrechtstraat 14 www.fretons.nl

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DANIELE ALESSANDRINI (M)

JEFFERSON HOTEL (M)

Located in the Nine Streets, Italian mono-brand store Daniele Alessandrini has some very devoted fans. The brand effortlessly combines elegant tailoring with the latest fashion trends, from perfectly cut trench coats and smart suits to stylish sneakers and detailed accessories.

Despite the name, the Jefferson Hotel is not one of the city’s many hostelries, but a luxury fashion boutique aimed at stylish, street-savvy men. Jefferson Hotel stocks labels such as Diesel Black Gold, Closed and OnTour, as well as a selection of rare vintage accessories.

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Hartenstraat 20a www.alessandrini.it

Elandsgracht 57 www.jeffersonhotel.nl

DENHAM (M/F)

SKY (W)

Amsterdam-based designer jeans label Denham takes its inspiration from the past as well as the present. ‘The truth is in the details’ is the slogan of this cool and sophisticated brand. Besides jeans, the Denham collection also includes tops, coats, jumpers, bags and accessories.

Fashion-followers from all over town flock here for wardrobe essentials, including Étoile Isabel Marant boots and enviable mainstays from brands such as Les Prairis de Paris, Humanoid and A.P.C. The spacious private fitting rooms in the back invite you to take your time and try on every piece in the shop.

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Prinsengracht 495 (M), (F) Runstraat 17 www.denhamthejeanmaker.com

SMAAK (W)

ENNU (M/F) Located near the Vondelpark in the South of Amsterdam, this boutique offers underground high-end fashion.

Shop for exclusive and unusual clothes and accessories by Balmain, Balenciaga, Ann Demeulemeester, Rick Owens and others. The shop itself is a bit mysterious, with its smoky windows and dark interior.

Cornelis Schuytstraat 15 www.ennu.nl

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Herengracht 228 www.skyfashion.nl

Dutch bag label Smaak (‘Taste’) is conquering the world – or at least the city. Store number three recently opened its doors on fashionable Utrechtsestraat and is stocked with affordable leather bags and clutches, as well as an assortment of wallets in both bright colours and pastels.

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Utrechtsestraat 117 www.smaakamsterdam.nl

PART IV

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may & jun 2013

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CLUBBING/MUSIC/ EXHIBITIONS/STAGE/ KIDS/FESTIVALS/ GAY & LESBIAN/SPORTS

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RAHI REZVANI

For complete listings, see www.iamsterdam.com

NETHERLANDS DANCE THEATRE For more than 50 years, the NDT has been bending and blending genres with a style rooted in rigorous ballet technique but punctuated by strong, often gestural movement. Based in The Hague, a performance by NDT in Amsterdam is always a treat, but at the Carré – with its circular stage – this will be a rare performance indeed, promising a whole new perspective.

Resident choreographer duo Paul Lightfoot and Sol León – the Lennon and McCartney of the modern ballet world – have conceived the piece especially for the space, taking as inspiration the idea of ‘social dances’.

5-7 JUNE, ROYAL THEATER CARRÉ Amstel 115-125, www.theater carre.nl. Various times, €32/€34

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PART IV THE A-LIST

CLUBBING/NIGHTLIFE CLUBBING MAZZO IS BACK! Mazzo – once upon a time an infamous little hole-in-thewall club on Rozengracht – is back for one night only. The original house and techno club burnt down, got raided by the police several times and was just downright legendary. God knows what’s going to happen tonight. Some of the original Mazzo DJs have been traced to rock this party: Angelo D’Onorio, Carlijn, Jack De Marseille, Paul Jay and Steve Rachmad.

Studio 80, Sat 4 May, 23.00, €13

Hotflush – plays a cool mix of new and old, techno and electro, house and ghetto bass. You might as well accept that Friday hangover.

Club Up, Thur 16 May, 22.00, €10

Choice clubbing

CRAIG DAVID One of the first pop stars in the UK Bass genre – back in the day still in its UK Garage form – is touring again. We’d be surprised if he didn’t play classics such as ‘Re-Rewind’ (a collaboration with Artful Dodger), ‘Seven Days’ and ‘Walking Away’.

Melkweg, Fri 17 May, 19.30, €8 HI FI & 50 WEAPONS A Made Up Sound (formerly known as 2562) and Cosmin TRG occupy the middle ground between bass, house and techno music; clearly one of the sounds of today. Expect less adventurous dance-floor vibes from Trouw residents Nuno dos Santos and Patrice Bäumel.

Trouw, Fri 17 May, 23.00, €17, €8 before midnight

VRIJLAND FESTIVAL Smart people never miss a chance to attend the first edition of a festival because, apparently, annual events always change for the worse. With Detroit house and techno from Mike Huckaby, IDM/techno wizard Claro Intellecto, Jame Frias plus local jackmasters San Proper, Steven de Peven and Melon on the bill, PACHA FESTIVAL we think heading to Roest’s Ibiza’s Pacha club knows we’ve warehouse may turn out to be a been severely hit by the financial good idea anyway. crisis, which means flying to Roest, Sun 5 May, 11.00, €20 the Balearic pearl in the MedPLEINVREES HEROES iterranean is not an option for most of us. Line-ups like these A mix of international and local are rare though, even at Pacha, DJs – including Alle Farben, so this festival might prove even Joris Delacroix, Olivier Weiter better than the real thing if and Arjuna Schiks (live) – play the sun beats the drizzle today. minimal, clean techno to a Expect most DJs to play tunes youngish crowd. in the techno and progressive Toren Overhoeks, Sun 5 May, house genres. These are only a 12.00, €25 few from a very long list: Kevin SOUNDS OF THE Saunderson, Roger Sanchez, UNDERGROUND FESTIVAL Sander Kleinenberg and John Digweed. See page 23.

A new festival for lovers of Java Eiland, Sat 18 May, experimental and improvised 12.00, €49.50 music. Sounds like you can’t boogie to that? Wrong! DJ MarDREAMTEAM 4 EVER celle Van Hoof spins anything Once upon a time, four Dutch between dancehall, heavy bass gabba/hardcore-loving chaps music and amen breaks, while got together and thought it the Jahtari Rhythm Force is equipped with analogue synthe- would be cool to call themselves The Dreamteam. Turned out sizers, a Game Boy and laptops they had quite some success. resulting in a collage of digi-dub They’re old folks now, but their most people would find it hard music hasn’t slowed down a not to wiggle to. Prepare to hear bit – expect no less than 170 a lot of noisy and challenging BPM. We’re talking about Dano, stuff in between these funky Buzzfuzz and Gizmo, who are beats. See www.sotufestival.com. set to spin some tunes after OCCII, OT301 and Vondelperforming live on stage. Also bunker, Fri 10- Sun 12 May, programmed are terrifying DJ various times & prices sets by hardcore legends such as DRUMCODE NIGHT Ruffneck and Leviathan. Not for the faint hearted.

Stockholm’s Adam Beyer kind Paradiso, Sat 18 May, of invented ‘loop techno’. If 23.30, €17.50 you’re not familiar with this term, just use your imagination.

JAMES HOLDEN & The Drumcode Records head WAREHOUSE honcho is set to play a B2B set Devon’s James Holden is a with rising Italian techno talent Joseph Capriati. Local peep and mathematician, label boss plus a VOLTT-initiator Bart Skils are renowned producer and remixer set to warm up for the big men. (he’s reinterpreted tracks by the likes of Britney Spears and MaParadiso, Sat 11 May, donna). But the reason he never 22.00, €22 fails to attract a hugely enthusiBOSTON STRIP X astic crowd lies in the psychedelNIGHTFLIGHT ic and trance-inducing nature Boston Strip specialises in tech- of his techno sets. Also spinning are Kennedy and Vakula. no, house and bass club nights.

Weekdays can’t get much better Trouw, Sat 18 May, 23.00, €18, €8 before midnight than this if your life’s all about getting groovy. Headlining Brit BACK IN THE HOUSE Paul Woodford – known for his With a focus on eurodance, releases on Carl Craig’s Planet E classics, progressive and trance, Communications as well as on

REDEVICE INVITES RUSH HOUR @ KLINCH Rush Hour Records has made a name for itself by reissuing a load of genre-defining house 12-inches. Among the most legendary are those by Chicago’s Virgo Four. During the late ’80s, this duo produced a handful of iconic, melodic, analogue tunes such as ‘Going Thru Life’, ‘In a Vision’ and ‘Ride’, which you can expect to hear straight from the turntables tonight. Virgo are joined by rapper-cum-singer-cum-turntablist Elbee Bad – also from Chicago – and Rush Hour’s main man and excellent DJ, Antal Heitlager.

Melkweg, Fri 17 May, 23.00, €16

RICARDO VILLALOBOS There are many celeb bon vivants in the techno scene, but Germany’s Ricardo Villalobos probably tops the list.

Musically, he’s still on top of things with a recent project seeing him remix his favourite ECM recordings with Sun Electric’s Max Loderbauer.

DJ-set wise, expect some deep, non-generic minimal techno. Local support comes from Melon. Trouw, Fri 24 May, 23.00, €22

AMSTERDAM OPEN AIR WEEKENDER The huge line-up at this lakeside festival is pretty impressive. DJs play across many genres, all electronic: electro, dubstep, house, techno and disco. A small selection of the many (inter)national names: Todd Terry, Matthew Dear, Joost Van Bellen, Ellen Allien (pictured) and Gerd. See www.amsterdamopenair.nl.

Gaasperplas, Sat 8 & Sun 9 Jun, 12.00, from €49.50

OUWE STIJL IS this outdoor rave is looking good BOTERGEIL for fans of cheesy house music.

2 Unlimited (live), Jean, Jurgen, A rough-as-hell party in AmsterJohan Gielen, Klubbheads, dam’s South East with Clarkee, Sash (live), Darude and Rank 1 Miss Zelda, Arjuna, Painbringer, will no doubt attract an older, Freaky Flow and many others unselfconscious party crowd. playing aggressive techno and Particularly interesting for those hardcore. You might get lucky who remember the days of Club at this venue (a former Chinese iT and Trance Energy. restaurant), as the dance floor See www.backinthehouse.nl. moves around the DJ booth Java Eiland, Sun 19 May, whenever it feels like it.

14.00, €39.50 Pand 14, Sat 25 May, 22.00, €12.50 THE AGE OF LOVE: FRESH FM HOUSE TOP 1000 IMPRINT & COLORS X DRUKPERS We haven’t got a clue how this chart came about. The average Expect a mix of house, bass and age of the participating DJs, techno with these three party though, suggests you’re not like- crews joining hands for en epic ly to hear many house cuts from evening. With Sandrien the last decade. The elderly line- (Imprint), Cinnaman (Colors), up includes Erick E, Isis, Jurgen, Job Jobse and British techno Marcello and Remy. artist Inigo Kennedy.

Melkweg, Sun 19 May, Trouw, Sat 25 May, 23.00, €22 23.00, €17

SOLSTICE FESTIVAL Celebrate midsummer in a psychedelic manner with loads of hippies and the artistic inhabitants of Ruigoord, a tiny village squashed between the oil refinery estates of Amsterdam’s harbour. There’s plenty of time to bounce to psy-trance.

See www.ruigoord.nl.

Ruigoord, Sat 15 12.00-Sun 16 Jun 24.00, time and price TBA COSTA DEL SOUL: BLIJBURG 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY Blijburg is an artificial beach in Amsterdam’s east, overlooking a traditional Dutch village on the other side of the water. ‘Blij’ means happy and, indeed, most people patying here are pretty content. This edition of the annual Costa Del Soul festival features – as is usually the case – a wide range of local selecters.

Expect them to play house, disco, techno and electro.

Blijburg, Sat 15 & Sun 16 Jun, 12.00, €30/€40 HOAX AT KLINCH HOAX is firmly grounded in innovative electro music, with its roots in hip hop, beats and bass. This edition, catch live sets from Gold Panda, Letherette, Vuurwerk and Know VA. Melkweg, Fri 21 Jun, 23.00, €18 AWAKENINGS FESTIVAL As the country’s largest techno event, Awakenings is an institution in the Netherlands, always guaranteeing an international DJ line-up to get techno-lovers’ pulses racing. The winning formula continues this year, with perennial headliners and icons of the circuit like Carl Cox, Sven Väth, Ben Klock & Marcel Dettmann, Marco Carola, Jeff Mills and Loco Dice all confirmed.

See www.awakeningsfestival.nl.

Spaarnwoude, Sat 29 Jun, 11.00, €52.50 ADDRESSES Blijburg Bert Haanstrakade 2004, www.blijburg.nl Melkweg Lijnbaansgracht 234a, www.melkweg.nl OCCII Amstelveenseweg 134, http://occii.org OT301 Overtoom 301, www.ot301.nl Pand 14 Muntbergweg 14, www.p14.nl Paradiso Weteringschans 6 www.paradiso.nl Roest Czaar Peterstraat 213, www.amsterdamroest.nl Studio 80 Rembrandtplein 17, www.studio-80.nl Toren Overhoeks Overhoeks 1, www.overhoeks.nl Trouw Wibautstraat 131, www.trouwamsterdam.nl Club Up Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 26, www.clubup.nl Vondelbunker Vondelpark 8, http://vondelbunker.nl

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may & jun 2013

MUSIC /POPULAR & JAZZ POPULAR & JAZZ

effect. The group has just released its second album.

Melkweg, Tue 7 May, 20.00, €16

COLD WAR KIDS Radio-friendly indie guitar pop KAISER CHIEFS from the Californian band, who There might not be a riot remind of Modest Mouse and Death Cab For Cutie. ‘Hang Me tonight, but these Leeds indie guitar boys can still get a bit Up to Dry’ was their breakout hit back in 2007. Arguably their raucous. Their biggest hits stem from their older albums, such sound has since softened, but as the big choruses of ‘Oh My new album Dear Miss Lonelyhearts has still received positive God’, ‘I Predict A Riot’, ‘Ruby’, ‘Modern Way’… But there will attention around the world. be new tunes, too, with the Paradiso, Wed 1 May, band currently prepping their 19.30, €17 fifth album.

SABRINA STARKE & Melkweg, Wed 8 May, THE METROPOLE 19.30, €29 ORCHESTRA SÓLEY The Dutch soul songstress Dreamy experimental pop teams up with the big band from the Icelandic songwriter. with whom she’s recorded her Creating layers of percussion, fourth album, Lean on Me: The piano and a choral effect with Songs of Bill Withers. With her powerful voice and some classy her own voice, the songs on her album We Sink are hypnotic orchestration, you can expect and remarkably infectious. to hear respectful yet inspiring Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Thur renditions of classic Withers 9 May, 20.30, €9 tracks, like ‘Kissing My Love’, ‘Just the Two of Us’, ‘Ain’t No ÓLAFUR ARNALDS Sunshine’, ‘Lovely Day’ and ‘Let The music of Icelandic comMe Be The One You Need’. poser Arnalds is always reliably Paradiso, Thur 2 May, soothing, sharing territory 20.30, €20. with ambient, classical and MARK RONSON B2B soundtrack music. His latest WITH A-TRAK album, For Now I Am Winter, is Brit producer and soul revival- home to some beautiful songs, ist Mark Ronson teams up with equivalent to piano and violin Canadian DJ star A-Track in a sonatas at times, but with guest vocalist Arnór Dan Arnársson back-to-back DJ set, of sorts. in tow, some moments are Expect an eclectic mix of old and new, with some weird sonic transformed into soothing pop and electronica reminiscent of battles and musical surprises Sigur Ros. along the way.

Paradiso, Sat 11 May, Paradiso, Thur 2 May, 19.00, €15 23.30, €12.50 MARK KNOPFLER JAMIE N COMMONS The renowned guitarist and This young British bluesman spent his childhood in Chicago, vocalist from British rock outfit the capital of the blues, but his Dire Straits is still going strong.

He isn’t cashing in on the past sound has a definite contemeither, as 2012 saw the release porary flare. With a strong, of his seventh solo album distinctive voice despite his youth, his songs reflect soul and (Privateering), continuing his gospel traditions, crossing over journey into traditional English folk, Celtic rock and blues terinto commercial pop. His song ritory, while still maintaining ‘Lead Me Home’ even popped that distinctive Knopfler guitar up on zombie TV show The technique.

Walking Dead.

Ziggo Dome, Tue 14 May, Melkweg, Fri 3 May, 19.45, €44-€59 19.30, €14

have crafted two sold albums of infectious melodies and harmonious boy-girl vox.

Paradiso, Wed 15 May, 20.00, €12 THE RADIOHEAD SONGBOOK When Radiohead visited Amsterdam last autumn, local contemporary string quartet Zapp4 presented them with a CD of reinterpretations of Radiohead classics and even performed at their after-show party. Tonight the quartet teams up with the Paradiso Orchestra for an extended performance, presenting fresh and unique versions of Radiohead songs that will remain familiar yet quite different.

Paradiso, Thur 16 May, 20.00, €20 NYNKE Chances are you won’t know

ELVIS THE Orchestra to recreate CONCERT 2013 these classics.

Bimhuis, Sun 19 May, Sadly Elvis has had to skip 20.15, €18.50 this 2013 tour due to... well, foreseen circumstances. But THE XX for fans of The King and rock With their electro-tinged min’n’ roll in general this is still a imalist indie, this young and pretty incredible opportunity to relive his classic songs in an in- mysterious Brit trio would never strike you as an arena act. timate setting, all played live by an A-list cast of musicians that Between the occasional dance beats and delicate guitar riffs, recorded and performed with their boy-girl almost-conversaElvis over the years. tional lyrics are delivered with Melkweg, Sat 18 May, 20.00, a whisper at times. Yet every €40-€50 aspect of their sound, image EUROVISION SONG and visual show is a carefully CONTEST constructed part of their aesthetic, sometimes dazzling With the Netherlands failing more than the music. to qualify for this mammoth Heineken Music Hall, Mon 20 cheesy pop festival year after May, 20.00, €35 year, there aren’t too many communal venues to get toSTEVE EARLE & THE DUKES gether and have a drink and Authentic roots and country laugh as Europe’s ‘finest’ put sounds from this acclaimed on their glad rags. But the De Texas-based songwriter. With La Mar encourages just that, a career that began in 1974 screening the proceedings live when he moved to Nashville, Earle has decades of heartfelt songs to call upon, as well as showcasing the folk and Americana of new album The Low Highway.

Paradiso, Sun 26 May, 20.30, €27.50

Choice pop & jazz

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE They called him the ‘Godfather of Grunge’ but this dishevelled Canadian troubadour has done much more for roots, folk and rock music over the past 50 years, and he’s still proving himself as a creative force. Last year saw him back with his old Crazy Horse cohorts, blasting out an album of traditional protest songs in Americana and then hitting full jam mode in Psychedelic Pill – one of the best critically received albums of his career. Either way, the old Master isn’t ready for the retirement home just yet. Ziggo Dome, Wed 5 Jun, 20.00, €59-€69

NEKO CASE This redheaded alt-country starlet has a killer voice that occasionally gets showcased with power pop group The New Pornographers and Canadian roots band The Sadies. But she’s also a fantastic songwriter in her own right, previously announcing that her new album may be titled The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight. The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You. Well, she did say ‘maybe’.

Paradiso, Tue 28 May, 20.00, €15 METROPOLE ORCHESTRA A Sunday morning trip down memory lane as the Netherlands’ most famous big band revisits classic works by American jazz trumpeter, orchestra leader and composer Duke Ellington. Vince Mendoza leads.

Concertgebouw, Sun 2 Jun, 11.00, €18-€20.70

SAVAGES KONRAD EL GUSTO KOSELLECK BIG Looking for the next big thing BAND PLAYS BECK in guitar pop? Well, Savages what Dutch singer Nynke Kinda like the Buena Vista from Sweden with some Dutch aren’t just savage by name.

Laverman is on about, as her Social Club, but based in AlThis renowned Dutch big band commentary.

This English post-punk outfit lyrics are typically in Frisian. giers rather than Havana, this is always up for a challenge, De La Mar Theater, Sat 18 already has a long list of But don’t hold that against her group of musicians, now well regularly playing with new May, 20.30, €19.50-€27.50 exceptional reviews despite not because the strong fado and into their pension, were imguests and never repeating INDIESTAD FESTIVAL releasing their debut album Latin atmosphere is unmismensely popular in the Algeitself. This evening it takes the until the day before this show. takable. For her latest album, rian capital back in the 1950s, unlikely step of visiting the A world of new and undisFor once, common comparisons Alter, she’s worked with Spanbut were dispersed during the songbook of eccentric Amercovered bands awaits at this to Joy Division and Siouxsie ish producer Javier Limón, ex- festival taking place at Paradiso country’s war of independence. ican songwriter Beck (‘Loser’, and the Banshees are utterly ploring rich flamenco rhythms and other small venues around They’ve been brought back ‘Where It’s At’, ‘Devil’s Haircut’, justified. and the characteristic sound of together by a young filmmaker etc). Expect them to find plenty town. See page 25.

Melkweg, Wed 15 May, percussionist Sytze Pruiksma. of funk, abstraction and Various locations, Sat 18-Sun and are once again performing 20.00, €13 De Duif, Thur 16 May, some of the most vibrant chaahumour along the way.

26 May, various times & 20.30, €17.50 bi music in Northern Africa.

Bimhuis, Mon 6 May, prices VERONICA FALLS Royal Theatre Carré, Sun 2 20.30, €16 TOMORROW’S WORLD 50 YEARS OF There are contrasting forces Jun, 19.45, €20-€35 JUNIP JOHN COLTRANE’S at work within this London/ Indie dance and electronica RUSH BALLADS as Air’s Jean-Benoît Dunckel Swedish singer-songwriter José Glasgow indie band: gloominess versus joy, and boundless turns his attention back to retro The classic rock of Canadian Gonzalez is most famous for Back in 1963, legendary sax beats, analogue synths and trio Rush doesn’t quite permehis acoustic solo work – nota- energy versus teenage lethargy. player John Coltrane put to Influenced heavily by the UK’s dance-floor moodiness. The bitate the airwaves in Europe like bly his laidback cover of The tape some beautifully lyrical lo-fi scene of the late ’80s and tersweet pop atmosphere is aidit does back in North America Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’. With and romantic music on the early ’90s, they could quite ed by vocals from New Young – probably because they’ve Junip, however, Gonzalez renowned album Ballads. Fifty easily be another derivative Pony Club’s Lou Hayter. never shied away from their makes a more uplifting noise, years later, the great American guitar pop outfit, yet they seem Melkweg, Fri 17 May, progressive roots, nor cashed blending indie pop with elecsaxophonist Joe Lovano teams to have outgrown that and 20.30, €16 in via ‘hits tours’. Instead, each tronics to surprisingly cheerful up with the grand Metropole

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PART IV THE A-LIST

MUSIC/POPULAR & JAZZ/CLASSICAL THE ZOMBIES THE GLOAMING Take a trip back to the peak of A new Irish folk supergroup ’60s pop and memorable hit with a Transatlantic twist, singles such as ‘Tell Her No’, The Gloaming are breaking ‘She’s Not There’, ‘Summertime’ new ground, stretching the and ‘Time of the Season’, still boundaries of the genre and echoing their influence across veering near to jazz and conthe decades. This incarnation temporary classical. Clearly of the group features original influenced by the old traditions members Colin Blunstone and the joy of the fiddle, their (vocals) and Rod Argent performances are virtuoso yet (piano/organ). subtle, powerful yet controlled, THE BREEDERS Paradiso, Sat 8 Jun, with beautiful, celebratory With the Pixies, bassist 19.30, €25 melodies never far from Kim Deal helped create a legthe surface.

JOSH GROBAN acy that inspired Nirvana and Bimhuis, Thur 20 Jun, countless other major bands.

American crooner Groban 20.30, €19 With her sister Kelley in The is a global superstar, always Breeders, Deal taught the indie walking a fine line between world how to crack the perfect classical, pop and easy lispop song in ‘Cannonball’. 20 tening. He may also be the years on their iconic album The modern-day bastion of the Last Splash is being reissued power ballad, inspiring female and the band is reuniting to fans (and maybe some males play it in its entirety. too) to hurtle underwear at Paradiso, Mon 3 Jun, the stage – which doesn’t tend 19.30, €25 to happen at regular classical performances.

GROUNDATION Ziggo Dome, Sun 9 Jun, The chilled roots reggae sound 20.00, €52-€56 of Groundation is always fitting THE VEILS for summertime, although this long-running crew are actually The Veils’ Finn Andrews from California rather than Ja- has proven himself to be a pretmaica. Don’t let that deter you, ty prolific songwriter over the as the grooves are solid and the past decade. The New PHOSPHORESCENT Rasta vibe intact, while Zealander, based in London, its brass section inflicts might not be heard on the Alabama’s Matthew Houck some memorable funk and radio too frequently, but his is a modern country enigma, jazzy twists. combination of insightful tough to pigeonhole and Melkweg, Mon 3 Jun, lyrics and sharp melodies exists rarely stationary. In recent 19.30, €20 somewhere between Travis year’s he’s tackled gothic and Bowie.

GHOSTPOET folk, a collection of Willie Melkweg, Sun 9 Jun, English rapper Ghostpoet is 20.00, €16 Nelson covers and more. a fascinating character. His After his longest pause in a ROD STEWART rhymes reflect the reality of decade, he’s just returned urban England rather than From the blues and soul in the with Muchacho, mixing bravado and bling. Mixed with ’70s through to the cheesey earnest sunshine acoustic bass-heavy electronics and pop and soft rock he became moments with distortion and creative, melodic sampling, renowned for in the ’80s, this electronic glitches. Bitterzohis work stands apart from English singer has always retypical hip hop. It may be gritty mained a classic entertainer. et, Fri 10 May, 20.30, €15 at times, but his songs – often On this tour you’ll get a little performed with a full band – bit of everything, from ‘Maggie are also befitting of after-hours May’ and ‘Da Ya Think I’m DEAD CAN DANCE dance floors.

Sexy?’ right through to maParadiso, Wed 5 Jun, terial from new album Time, Existing between gothic, 19.00, €10 his first self-penned work in pop and global folk, the decades – although hopefully recent re-formation of Dead GLEN HANSARD the leopard print leotard has Can Dance hasn’t grabbed Earnest Irish singer-songwriter been retired. as many headlines as their Hansard is pretty renowned for Ziggo Dome, Wed 12 Jun, noisier old label-mates his solo work, as well as with 20.00, €49-€65 Pixies and The Breeders. But his bands The Frames and The it’s also because after more MASTERS OF REALITY Swell Season. But this concert than 30 years since forming, brings together a collaboration Hard rock and blues from the there’s still little else around with pianist Nico Muhly, the old-school New York band. that sounds like the grand Icelandic label Bedroom ComThey may have taken their sonic poetry of Lisa Gerrard munity and the BBC Scottish name from a Black Sabbath and Brendan Perry. Their Symphony Orchestra, blending album in 1981, but over the voices remain utterly disparate moments of sparse electronics years they’ve been a huge influyet complimentary, resulting with orchestral grandeur, and, ence on bands like Kyuss and in an unmistakably ethereal of course, the melodious acousQueens of the Stone Age. soundscape. tic pop of Hansard.

Bitterzoet, Wed 12 Jun, Heineken Music Hall, Mon 24 Paradiso, Wed 5 Jun, 21.00, €20 Jun, 20.00, €49 20.30, €29 CABARET SONGS THE MOODY BLUES HILDUR GUÐNADÓTTIR Singer Jamie McDermott of Classic pop and rock from This young Icelandic cellist London theatrical pop outfit these British pioneers of is already a master of experiThe Irrepressibles adds colour psychedelic and progressive mental pop, layering an and passion to a radical new rock. We’re now an astonishing infinite number of cello loops, interpretation of Benjamin 45 years on from the release vocals and laptop beats. ToBritten’s popular ‘Cabaret of their first ‘proper’ album night she will play two works Songs’, which were written in Days of the Future Passed, and on newly developed electric 1937 and inspired by the Berlin they’ve since sold more than cellos: one utilising feedback nightlife of the period. On the 70 million albums worldwide. and one which is connected occasion of Britten’s centenary, Graeme Edge, John Lodge and to wooden sculptures, causing composer Conor Mitchell has Justin Hayward have reunited them to vibrate along with contributed eight new songs to to perform their long list of the music. the four originals. international hits.

Bimhuis, Wed 5 Jun, Bimhuis, Sat 15 Jun, Heineken Music Hall, Tue 25, 20.30, €19 20.30, €22 Wed 26 Jun, 20.00, €39-€59 of their major tours over the past decade has been matched with new albums that have been lapped up by their never-faltering fans.

And, of course, each gig brings with it the mightiest drum solo ever performed on this planet.

Ziggo Dome, Sun 2 Jun, 20.00, €62

TEGAN AND SARA Canadian twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin have been dishing up alternative pop since the late ’90s, initially focused on an indie guitar sound. No longer underdogs, on record they’re unafraid of creating energetic commercial pop that sits comfortably beside anything else on popular radio. But underpinning the hits are still simple bedroom-penned songs.

They’re here touring their latest, Heartthrob.

Paradiso, Wed 26 Jun, 19.30, €25

Choice pop & jazz

THE BAD PLUS From Nirvana to Stravinsky, this trio will try their hand at just about anything. They have an outstanding live reputation too, showing all the confidence of any hyped rock star, but with more musical chops. On latest album Made Possible they’ve expanded the template again, embracing the repetition of minimalism and introducing an electronic edge. Bimhuis, Tue 28 May, 20.30, €26

PATTI SMITH It’s almost 40 years since seminal punk poet Patti Smith released her most renowned album, Horses. Although reliably enchanting, she can still be a tough one to predict. But since releasing the album Banga last year and heading out on tour with a full band, she’s been in a pretty rockin’ state of mind, ensuring that her ‘hits’ get belted out with plenty of gusto.

Paradiso, Thur 27 & Fri 28 Jun, 20.30, €35 THE TRAGICALLY HIP If you aren’t Canadian you’ve possibly never heard of The Tragically Hip, who’re a giant stadium band back home.

That tends to mean that when they take to the road, their shows are flooded with a combo of Canadian tourists and expats (ice hockey shirts and maple-leaf pins optional).

But don’t let that put you off because they have a pretty rich catalogue of rootsy guitar pop and an excellent live reputation. And who doesn’t want to see 1,900 Canadians weeping in joy, eh?

Paradiso, Sat 29 Jun, 20.30, €25

ADDRESSES Bimhuis Piet Heinkade 3, http://bimhuis.nl Bitterzoet Spuistraat 2, www.bitterzoet.com Royal Theater Carré Amstel 125 www.theatercarre.nl Concertgebouw Concertgebouwplein 10, www.concertgebouw.nl De Duif Utrechtsedwarsstraat 7, http://deduif.home.xs4all.nl De La Mar Marnixstraat 402, http://delamar.nl Heineken Music Hall ArenA Boulevard 590, www.heineken-music-hall.nl Melkweg Lijnbaansgracht 234a, www.melkweg.nl Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Piet Heinkade 1, www.muziekgebouw.nl Paradiso Weteringschans 6-8, www.paradiso.nl Ziggo Dome ArenA boulevard 61 www.ziggodome.nl

CLASSICAL LUNCHTIME CONCERTS Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch (concert)? The Concertgebouw Lunchtime Concerts are exactly that, showcasing everything from young, upcoming talent to chamber music and public rehearsals by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. It’s advisable to show up at least half an hour in advance to guarantee entry.

Concertgebouw, every Wed, 12.30, free OPERA PER TUTTI! Regular opera sessions in the beautiful Vondelkerk, including five or six operatic fragments or arias – some you’ll know inside out, others may be new to you.

Vondelkerk, Thur 2, 30 May; & 13 Jun, 20.15, €10-€20 NETHERLANDS PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA The orchestra’s chief conductor has a long-established passion for the works of Robert Schumann, reflected once more in this programme featuring four of his works. Master pianist Ronald Brautigam joins for the opening half of the concert, including Introduction & Allegro in D minor and the Manfred overture.

Concertgebouw, Fri 3 May, 20.15, €15.80-€46.40 AMSTERDAM SINFONIETTA A Remembrance Day concert featuring three grand works inspired by darkness, love and war: Beethoven’s String Quartet in F (arranged by Mahler); Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony; and Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No.5.

Concertgebouw, Sat 4 May 21.15, €11.00-€12.50 LIZA FERSCHTMAN Over the course of two eve-

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MUSIC/CLASSICAL nings, the acclaimed Dutch violinist will perform Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. These baroque masterpieces bring out the true voice of the violin and hearing these majestic pieces performed in a marathon format is a rare treat.

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Fri 10 & Sat 11 May, 20.15, €29.50

performed on authentic instruments and includes soloists from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, plus pianist Edward Janning.

Amstelkerk, Tue 14 May, 20.15, €18

ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA Over the course of two concert seasons, Hungarian conductor and composer Iván Fischer is collaborating with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to perform all of Beethoven’s symphonies. Tonight they’ll tackle numbers 1, 2 and 5.

Concertgebouw, Fri 10 & Sat 11 May, 20.15, €31.50-€121.50

SCHUBERTIADE A fine tribute to the life and work of Franz Schubert as a host of classical stars tackle their favourite pieces. Guests include soprano Marlis Petersen, mezzo-soprano Anke Vondung, tenor Werner Güra, baritone Konrad Jarnot and pianists Christoph Berner and Camillo Radicke.

Concertgebouw, Tue 14 May, 20.15, €10-€45

CARTE BLANCHE FOR MARISS JANSONS ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA Marking his 70th birthday this season, Latvian great Mariss Conductor Herbert Blomstedt Jansons is celebrating in style is a popular leader whenever he by revisiting some of the clas- joins the musicians of the Royal sical world’s most renowned Concertgebouw Orchestra, works. Here he leads the especially renowned for putting Berliner Philharmoniker for the players at ease. Nielsen is Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra one of his favourite composand Brahms’ First. ers and this evening they will Concertgebouw, Sun 12 May, perform Nielsen’s beautiful, 15.00, €53.10-€142.20 modernist Fifth Symphony from 1922. They’ll also perform ERARD ENSEMBLE Beethoven’s Fourth Piano The Erard Ensemble specialises Concerto with young pianist in romantic classical music Hannes Minnaar.

Jérôme

Concertgebouw, Wed 15 & Thur 16 May, 20.15, €31.50-€121.50 AMSTERDAM CHAMBER ORCHESTRA This expert ensemble, led by Peter Santa, dedicates a programme to moments of reflection and contemplation, featuring works by Mozart, Schubert and Verdi.

Concertgebouw, Thur 16 May, 20.15, €60 VERDI’S REQUIEM The Hoofdstadkoor, the largest amateur choir in the Netherlands, is joined by the Gewestelijk Symfonie Orkest in this performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, a dramatic symphonic work that marries the solemnity of the church service with operatic grandeur.

Concertgebouw, Mon 20 May, 19.30, €23.50-€27.50 JEWISH COMPOSERS The period around WWII had a significant impact on the Concertgebouw, and, of course, Jewish composers and musicians were hit hard, many fleeing for their lives. In this concert the ARC Ensemble, soprano Lenneke Ruiten and pianist Thom Janssen will revisit masterpieces from a lost generation, including works

by Nico Richter, Leo Smit and

Dick Kattenburg.

Concertgebouw, Thur 23 May, 20.15, €45

modern Passion, focused not on Jesus but on Mary Magdalene.

Through her eyes we witness the suffering of the world NIEUW ENSEMBLE and the compassion of man.

Les Sacre du Printemps turned Premiered in Los Angeles last 100 this year, reminding us how year, it will be performed in Stravinsky shook up the estab- Amsterdam by the Radio Phillishment and affected the mod- harmonic Orchestra, conducted ern musical world. Likewise,

by Markus Stenz. the Nieuw Ensemble is always Concertgebouw, Sat 8 Jun, looking forward and presents 13.30, €28.80-€33.30 new work that embodies such NINE RIVERS unbridled creativity.

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Sat 25 Three of the Netherlands’ May, 20.15, €24 most outstanding ensembles (Asko|Schönberg, CappelSPRING SYMPHONY la Amsterdam, Slagwerk Although originally dedicatDen Haag) join the virtuoso ed to the Boston Symphony American percussionist and Orchestra, Benjamin Britten’s conductor Steven Schick for a choral Spring Symphony was marathon performance of Scotpremiered at the Concertgetish composer James Dillon’s bouw in July 1949 as part of masterpiece Nine Rivers. the Holland Festival. The BBC The concert takes place over Scottish Symphony Orchessix hours, three sessions and tra revisits it tonight with an two venues. all-British vocal cast. And in Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ/ tribute to Britten, who was a Bimhuis, Sat 8 Jun, from 17.00, regular guest of the venue in €22.50-€30 the wartime period and beyond, ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW they’ll also perform his ORCHESTRA Ballad of Heroes and An American Overture.

Ten years after his last Concertgebouw, Mon 3 Jun, appearance with the Royal 20.15, €27-€72 Concertgebouw Orchestra, Swiss oboist, composer and THE GOSPEL ACCORDING conductor Heinz Holliger TO THE OTHER MARY returns with a programme Renowned American composcentred on death. Included er John Adams has created a will be three of Holliger’s own

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Check out the full program at www.julidans.nl

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PART IV THE A-LIST

EXHIBITIONS

MUSIC/CLASSICAL Choice classical

THE THREEPENNY OPERA During the Concertgebouw’s 125th jubilee celebrations you can revisit key periods from its history. In May it’s the 1930s, which was a tumultuous time in Europe – but certainly not one short of inspiration. The outstanding contemporary ensemble Asko|Schönberg turns its attention to the musical theatre of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera – both a social criticism and a collection of brilliant songs. It will be performed in its original German with a fantastic cast of theatre and cabaret stars.

Concertgebouw, Wed 22 May, 20.15, €22.50-€63

BELCEA QUARTET No sooner was the Netherlands liberated at the end of WWII than the Concertgebouw was back open and being visited by the likes of Benjamin Britten. Here, 90-year-old pianist Menahem Pressler joins the Belcea Quartet to perform Britten’s First String Quartet, Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet and one of Mozart’s beautiful Prussian String Quartets.

Concertgebouw, Mon 17 Jun, 20.15, €45 LIGHT ON THE LONGEST DAY On the longest day of the year, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic performs its final concert. Supported

by Visual Kitchen’s video and lighting design, the ensemble will premiere four compositions with a theme of ‘light’.

Two of these are Dutch premieres, two are brand new… an emphatic statement by the orchestra to leave something behind for the future.

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Fri 21 Jun, 20.30, €28.50 MAHLERLIEDER East-Tyrolean outfit Franui make Mahler sound like never before. With their unusual, brass-dominated instrumentation this ‘Musicabanda’ from the village of Innervillgraten have developed their unique sound by combining folk with classical music and jazz.

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Sat 22 Jun, 20.30, €26

SÃO PAULO COMES TO MUSEUMPLEIN In 1994 the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra performed a free open-air concert in São Paulo to 200,000 people. On this trip to Brazil they’ll repeat the experience, beamed direct to screens on Museumplein. Mariss Jansons leads for a performance combining grand European classical traditions with South American flair. Museumplein, Sun 23 Jun, 16.00, free works: two adaptations of ominous piano works by Liszt and the Dutch premiere of Ardeur noire, his homage to Debussy.

Concertgebouw, Thur 13 & Fri 14 Jun, 20.15, €22.50-€40.50

PLACIDO DOMINGO Hands down the world’s greatest tenor, Placido Domingo has sung 140 different roles, more than any other tenor in history, and given more than 3,600 concerts in the course of his illustrious career. On his mantelpiece are 12 Grammy Awards and two Emmys. No surprise, then, that he commands this incredibly hefty ticket price.

Ziggo Dome, Thur 13 Jun, 20.00, €45-€245 and this intimate concert sees the Dutch violinist performing Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, plus works by Schumann and Strauss.

Concertgebouw, Sat 15 Jun, 14.15, €28.80-€33.30

BROOKLYN TO NETHERLANDS BERLIN WITH LEE PHILHARMONIC RANALDO ORCHESTRA The Berlin string ensemble Led by the principal conducSolistenensemble Kaleidoskop has earned itself an exceptional tor of the Camerata Salzburg, Frenchman Louis Langrée, and reputation. For their visit to joined by American violinist Holland Festival 2013 they are joined by Sonic Youth’s guitarist Stefan Jackiw, the showpiece of this evening’s concert is Lee Ranaldo for a programme Tchaikovsky’s Fourth. The of sonic abstraction.

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Fri 14 programme also includes Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in A Jun, 20.30, €28.50 and Weber’s overture from Der JANINE JANSEN Freischütz.

Concertgebouw, Sat 15 Jun, Janina ‘queen of the downlaods’ 20.15, €32.40-€39.60 Jansen is an international star

KATIA & MARIELLE LABÈQUE As part of the Concertgebouw’s Master Pianist series, this sibling duo performs a temperamental Spanish and French programme: Ravel’s Rhapsodie espagnole; Glass’s Four Movements for Two Pianos; and Ravel’s Boléro.

Concertgebouw, Sun 23 Jun, 20.00, €29.79-€49.50 CONCERTS IN THE PARK Dutch jazz songstress Caro Emerald isn’t only a huge star in the Netherlands, but also renowned for her popular dance-friendly vocal style around the globe. As such, this opening of the Robeco Summer Nights series, has long been sold out. But fear not, fans van visit Noorderpark and take in a live broadcast direct from the Concertgebouw.

Noorderpark, Sun 29 Jun, 20.00, free ADDRESSES Amstelkerk Amstelveld 10, www.stadsherstel.nl Concertgebouw Concertgebouwplein 10, www.concertgebouw.nl Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Piet Heinkade 1, www.muziekgebouw.nl Vondelkerk Vondelstraat 120d www.vondelkerk.nl Ziggo Dome ArenA boulevard 61 www.ziggodome.nl

TEMPORARY JEWISH FLAVOUR, A WORLDWIDE CUISINE From chicken soup to Surinamese pom, Jewish dishes are enjoyed all over the world. In the first interactive exhibition of its kind, the Jewish Historical Museum invites visitors to taste, discover and experience the Jewish kitchen first hand.

Jewish Historical Museum, until 5 May TROY: CITY, HOMER, TURKEY Exploration of the legendary world of Troy, a city of controversy and contradictions that never fails to inspire the imagination. featuring a wealth of artefacts drawn from archaeological collections housed in Istanbul, Ankara and Canakkale (the modern-day location of Troy).

Allard Pierson Museum, until 5 May TUTANKHAMUN, HIS TOMB AND HIS TREASURES Some 90 years after Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter, this international exhibition invites visitors to relive one of the greatest archaeological finds in history. Covering 3,000 square metres, visitors wander through a life-sized reproduction of the labyrinthine burial chambers, which contain more than 1,000 exact replicas of the young pharaoh’s swag, from various weapons to his famous death mask.

Amsterdam Expo, until 5 May JOHAN & ME Pictures and stories of people who have had an encounter with Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff, who turned 65 in April last year. Photos and personal tales are complemented by a number of objects loaned from Cruyff ’s private collection.

Amsterdam Museum, until 12 May LIEKO SHIGA – CANARY Often dark in nature, the dramatic images of Japanese photographer Lieko Shiga are rooted in folklore tradition and reference the twilight that exists somewhere between dream and reality. Part of the new generation of Japanese photographers, Shiga’s work is characterised by an expressive use of light and colour and powerful imagery.

FOAM, until 12 May FOAM 3H: SARA CWYNAR – EVERYTHING IN THE STUDIO (DESTROYED) New York-based Cwynar is acclaimed for her photographic work combined with installations, collages and sculpture. A major theme is her obsession with collecting, arranging and photographing a huge variety of images, objects and artefacts.

FOAM, until 16 May 1,001 WOMEN IN DUTCH HISTORY Exhibition allowing visitors to literally take a stroll through a

new book examining the stories of extraordinary, (in)famous and forgotten women who played an important role in Dutch history.

The exhibition shines the spotlights on inspirational women from as far back as 300 AD right up to the present day.

University of Amsterdam Special Collections, until 20 May OUR QUEEN Nearly 150 photographs charting the official life of Beatrix and her 33 years as Queen of the Netherlands. See page 7.

Beurs van Berlage, until 25 May ALONG AMSTERDAM’S CANALS As Amsterdam celebrates the 400th anniversary of its canals, the Rembrandthuis hosts a magnificent selection of views of Amsterdam, from the 17th through to the 20th century. On loan from the Royal Antiquarian Society of the Netherlands, this compilation features works by artists including Jan van Call, and Gerrit Lambertsis.

Rembrandthuis, until 26 May BOOMING AMSTERDAM During the Golden Age, Amsterdam’s growth and expansion were unprecedented. Trade and shipping from all corners of the globe turned the city into one of the most important metropolises in Europe. Celebrating Amsterdam’s many milestones in 2013, the City Archives pays special attention to this monumental growth with an exhibition of original 17th-century maps and artefacts.

Amsterdam City Archives, until 26 May MICHAEL TEDJA: SNAKE 350 drawings and paintings on paper and linen by multidisciplinary artist Michael Tedja, all revolving around the fictional character SNAKE. CoBrA Museum, until 26 May SPONTANEITY: A CHOSEN PATH Featuring works by Constant, Asger Jorn, Corneille and Karel Appel that illustrate the artists’ constant search for spontaneous creation, born out of a deep-set desire to create something new, outside the boundaries of established norms.

CoBrA Museum, until 26 May THE AMSTERDAM CANALS Photographs of Amsterdam’s Canal Ring by young shutterbug Cris Toala Olivares. See page 13.

Het Grachtenhuis, until 2 Jun ARMANDO VS ARMANDO An overview of recent work

by Dutch painter and author Armando (aka Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd). Renowned for his animated, expressive works, the 83-year-old artist certainly hasn’t rested on his laurels in recent years: his prolific output demonstrates personal development while referencing his earlier work.

CoBrA Museum, until 2 Jun

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ADRIAAN DORTSMAN: Golden Age in the Netherlands: THE IDEAL CANAL an era of world trade, economic growth, cultural and religious Revisiting the great legacy of Amsterdam architect Adriaan diversity, flourishing science and the construction of the AmsterDortsman (1635-1682), whose dam canals – but also a century work in the 17th century of slavery and war. remains prominent throughout Amsterdam Museum, the city: the unmistakable ciruntil 13 Aug cular Lutheran Church on the Singel; Huis Six on the Amstel BEASTLY BEAUTY and Museum Van Loon itself.

Museum Van Loon, until 8 Jun Examining the role of animals in Jewish art.

DUTCH DOC AWARD 2013 Jewish Historical Museum, until 1 Sep The best images by the six photographers nominated for LUCY MCKENZIE – this year’s Dutch Doc Award, an SOMETHING THEY HAVE annual competition recognising TO LIVE WITH the year’s most significant docuScottish artist Lucy McKenzie is mentary projects. acclaimed for her trompe l’oeil Tropenmuseum, until 9 Jun painting technique, which often JOHAN VAN DER KEUKEN produces deceptive images.

Stedelijk Museum, Examining the work of until 22 Sep acclaimed Dutch photographer and filmmaker Johan van der REMBRANDT: Keuken (1938-2001), widely ALL HIS PAINTINGS revered for his dual talents, Major exhibition bringing all making films with a photo325 of Rembrandt’s paintings graphic eye while bringing filmtogether for the first time, as ic elements to his photographs. high-quality reproductions. The EYE Film Institute, chronological display represents until 9 Jun the sum of a lifetime of research BOURGEOIS LEFTOVERS into Rembrandt the artist and craftsman, atelier owner, art Selected 20th-century Dutch teacher and philosopher. Using paintings from the Van Abbethe latest techniques, every work museum in Eindhoven’s ‘leftattributed to the Old Master overs’: works of uncontested has been digitally reproduced significance in spite of not to scale. The reproductions and being part of the permanent accompanying texts provide an collection. unrivalled insight into RemDe Appel, until 16 Jun brandt’s artistic development.

POLLOCK & KRASNER Magna Plaza, until 31 Dec Two seminal works by legendary VAN GOGH AT WORK American artist couple Jackson This far-reaching exhibition Pollock and Lee Krasner: Polcontains more than 200 paintlock’s Untitled/Greetings and ings, works on paper, sketchKrasner’s Dark Easter, both part books and letters by Van Gogh of the Triton Collection. and his peers. See page 20.

Jewish Historical Museum, Van Gogh Museum, until 16 Jun until 13 Jan 2014 POWER – PRIX PICTET 2012 AERNOUT MIK: Exhibition accompanying the COMMUNITAS prestigious Prix Pictet photogThe most significant video inraphy competition, featuring works by shortlisted photogra- stallations by Dutch artist Aernphers Jacqueline Hassink, Carl out Mik, examining the psychological state of our society. de Keyzer and Guy Tillim as Stedelijk Museum, well as the winning photograph 4 May-25 Aug

by Luc Delahaye.

Huis Marseille, until 16 Jun INAUGURATED WORLD PRESS PHOTO For exactly 100 days, this oneoff exhibition focuses on the The winning images from the festive, ceremonial inauguraworld’s largest and most prestitions of seven generations of gious annual press photography the Orange-Nassau family. The contest. See page 26.

Netherlands is one of 12 Oude Kerk, until 26 Jun European monarchies, and since ENCOUNTERS: HIDDEN 1813, its heads of state have all STORIES FROM OUR OWN belonged to the Orange-Nassau COLLECTION family. See page 7.

De Nieuwe Kerk, 11 May-18 Aug The Tropenmuseum explores the hidden tales behind items STEVEN GILL from its own extensive collecSolo exhibition covering 14 tion, pairing together a series of objects to explore what happens years of photographic studies by Steven Gill, all inspired by the when two ostensibly different London Borough of Hackney things are brought together.

– an extremely diverse and conTropenmuseum, until 14 Jul stantly changing area in the east THE GOLDEN AGE: of the English capital.

GATEWAY TO OUR WORLD FOAM, 17 May-7 Jul Using cutting-edge new media MONICA NOUWENS – LOOK alongside world-class historic pieces, the Amsterdam Museum AT ME AND TELL ME IF YOU HAVE KNOWN ME BEFORE delves into the Dutch Golden Dutch photographer Monica Age like never before. This Nouwens explores the ambivasweeping exhibition takes a lent attraction of Los Angeles. close look at all aspects of the

Choice exhibits

PIXAR: 25 YEARS OF ANIMATION You’d be forgiven for thinking that animation studio Pixar was all about the bleeding edge of technology; but in fact, there are as many analogue artists working in traditional media – hand drawing, painting, pastels, sculpture – as digital media. Their invaluable work occurs along the way during film development, and is consequently rarely seen by the public – something this exhibition aims to rectify.

See the creativity and skill that opens up Pixar’s story worlds and gives form to the visions that drive their films.

Amsterdam Expo, from 30 May

PETER THE GREAT A highlight of the Netherlands-Russia 2013 celebrations, this exhibition features a huge selection of art and priceless exhibits linked to Peter the Great as well as an array of the Tsar’s personal effects. Historical artefacts, paintings, gold jewellery from the ancient world, weapons and unique documents sketch the life of this peerless ruler. Hermitage Amsterdam, until 13 Sep

KOOS BREUKEL & ROY VILLEVOYE – TI In 2011, photographer Koos Breukel and artist Roy Villevoye travelled to De Asmat (previously Netherlands New Guinea), a largely impenetrable mangrove swamp roughly the size of the Netherlands.

This exhibition shows what the pair saw at Tí, a small rainforest settlement in which the population continues to live in complete isolation.

FOAM, until 19 Jun

Her raw, emotionally-charged Philip Mechanicus (1936-2005), images show how the impendwho is best known for his ing twilight transforms the city strikingly sober yet penetrating into a magical fairy tale and black-and-white portraits of auconversely, how this charm can thors, poets and artists – works also alarmingly quickly disapwhich could often be seen in pear. For this project, Nouwens newspapers, magazines and focused on the LA Bohemians, books from the 1960s onwards. a subculture of people removing Jewish Historical Museum, themselves from what they 24 May-27 Oct perceive to be the dominant COBRA: consumer society.

EN PLEIN AIR FOAM, 17 May-14 Jul The largest private collection ARTZUID of CoBrA works in the world, The popular international sculpowned by the Danish Olesen ture route returns to the district brothers, on display for the first of Zuid for its third edition. time in the Netherlands and See page 26. featuring city- and landscapes District of Zuid, 24 May-22 Sep by an extremely youthful Karel Appel (who produced some PHILIP MECHANICUS of these works at the tender The first major retrospective of age of 17). work by Amsterdam born and CoBrA Museum, bred photographer and publicist 14 Jun-1 Sep

WALKER EVANS – DECADE BY DECADE Exhibition devoted to the entire body of work by influential American photographer Walker Evans, featuring a wide selection of images that have never before been on public display.

Huis Marseille, 22 Jun-22 Sep ARTIFICIAL AMSTERDAM Guest curators combine new work with historic pieces to examine the idea of Amsterdam as a man-made city. Amsterdam’s watery foundations required a great deal of design and the city has been organised intelligently thanks to a comprehensive network of rules and laws. But is there a connection between the planned, physical structure of the city and the personal experience of the residents? Or, on the contrary, is there an entirely different Amsterdam behind the stone façades, which is far from being as controlled is as it appears at first glance?

De Appel, 29 Jun-13 Oct FELLINI – THE EXHIBITION Major exhibition delving into the life, work and boundless imagination of pioneering Italian post-war cinematographer Federico Fellini. An enormous range of projected film fragments, photographs, records, letters and posters provide an unprecedented insight into what inspired and motivated the man behind films including La Strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½. Accompanied by a retrospective film programme.

EYE Film Institute, 30 Jun-29 Sep

PERMANENT ANNE FRANK HOUSE One of the most emotive museums you’ll visit, the Anne Frank House stands as tribute to – and reminder of – the darkest consequences of intolerance and fear of the ‘other’. For two years during World War II, Anne Frank, her family and four others hid in a secret annexe at Prinsengracht 263, following the increasingly restrictive policies of the occupying Nazis against the Jews. It was here that Anne wrote her famous diary. The Franks were eventually betrayed and sent to concentration camps, with only Anne’s father, Otto, surviving.

The annexe has been preserved, and extracts form the diary plus personal items are displayed, as well as temporary exhibitions promoting tolerance.

BIBLE MUSEUM Home to a large collection of ancient Jewish and Egyptian religious artefacts, museum highlights include a reconstruction of the Tabernacle tent that is said to have housed the Ark of the Covenant plus a first-rate collection of Bibles, including the oldest printed version in the Netherlands.

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PART IV THE A-LIST

EXHIBITIONS were not permitted to practice their faith in public

HET SCHEEPVAARTMUSEUM The recently-renovated National Maritime Museum.

See pages 8-14.

REMBRANDTHUIS Get to know the Old Master STEDELIJK MUSEUM personally by visiting his home and studio. Located in the picThe museum’s permanent colturesque heart of Amsterdam, lection is now on display in the the house that Rembrandt beautifully restored historical called home for nearly 20 years building, with fixed spots for boasts an impressive collection highlights such as ‘The Beanery’ of drawings and paintings by

by Edward Kienholz and works HET GRACHTENHUIS Rembrandt himself as well as by Willem de Kooning and Andy (MUSEUM OF THE CANALS) by his contemporaries. The Warhol. Half of the ground floor Rembrandthuis is also home to A tribute to the Canal District, is reserved for the best pieces 290 of Rembrandt’s etchings – a with multimedia exhibitions from the design collection. near complete collection – and showing how the city was built TROPENMUSEUM an alternating selection is on on swamp land. permanent display.

The ‘Museum of the Tropics’ has MUSEUM VAN LOON eight geographically-themed RIJKS MUSEUM Among the most powerful permanent exhibitions and an The Netherlands’ Golden Age 17th-century families, the Van ongoing series of temporary art institution reopened last Loons belonged to the city’s presentations, including both governing elite, and were among month after a decade of unprecmodern and traditional visual the founders of the mighty VOC edented renovation. Inspired by arts and photographic work. the pomp of venerable French – the Dutch East India CompaWILLET-HOLTHUYSEN institution the Louvre, Pierre ny – back in 1602. With much MUSEUM of its original interior intact, the Cuypers’ richly decorated 1876 design literally name checks the museum collection comprises Soak up the authentic 19thglories of Dutch art history in paintings, antique furnishings century atmosphere and find gold leaf. It has been renovated and objects d’art. out what life was like in Aminto a bright, spacious place, sterdam for both wealthy and ONS’ LIEVE HEER OP with jaw-dropping, light-floodordinary members of SOLDER (OUR LORD ed entrance, state-of-the-art society. Built in 1687, the house IN THE ATTIC) facilities and restored galleries. and its fine collection of art were Expect Old Masters aplenty – At first glance, this looks like bequeathed to the city of Amincluding Rembrandt’s iconic a typical 17th-century canal sterdam by its last resident.

‘Night Watch’ – as well as a treahouse, but there’s a historical ADDRESSES church hidden behind the clas- sure trove of silverware, ceramics and more. It soon becomes sical facade. This clandestine Allard Pierson Museum clear why the history of art is chapel in the attic dates back to Oude Turfmarkt 127, written with Dutch names. the Reformation when Catholics www.allardpiersonmuseum.nl

Amsterdam City Archives Vijzelstraat 32, http://stadsarchief. amsterdam.nl Amsterdam Expo Gustav Mahlerlaan 24, www.amsterdamexpo.nl Amsterdam Museum Kalverstraat 92, http://amsterdammuseum.nl Anne Frank House Prinsengracht 263-267, www.annefrank.org De Appel Arts Centre Prins Hendrikkade 142, www.deappel.nl Beurs van Berlage Damrak 243, www.beursvanberlage.nl Bible Museum Herengracht 366-368, www.bijbelsmuseum.nl CoBrA Museum Sandbergplein 1, Amstelveen, www.cobra-museum.nl EYE Film Institute IJpromenade 1, www.eyefilm.nl FOAM Photography Museum Keizersgracht 609, http://foam.org Geelvinck Hinlopen House Keizersgracht 633, http://geelvinck.nl Het Grachtenhuis Herengracht 386, http://hetgrachtenhuis.nl Hermitage Amsterdam Amstel 51, www.hermitage.nl Huis Marseille

Keizersgracht 401, www.huismarseille.nl Jewish Historical Museum Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1, www.jhm.nl De Nieuwe Kerk Dam square, www.nieuwekerk.nl Ons’ Lieve Heer Op Solder Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40, www.opsolder.nl Oude Kerk Oudekerksplein 23, www.oudekerk.nl Rembrandthuis Jodenbreestraat 4, www.rembrandthuis.nl Rijksmuseum Jan Luijkenstraat 1, www.rijksmuseum.nl Het Scheepvaartmuseum Kattenburgerplein 1, www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl Special Collections, University of Amsterdan UvA, Oude Turfmarkt 129, www. bizonderecollecties.uva Stedelijk Museum Museumplein 10, http://stedelijk.nl Tropenmuseum Linnaeusstraat 2, www.tropenmuseum.nl Willet-Holthuysen Museum, Herengracht 605, www.willetholthuysen.nl Museum Van Loon Keizersgracht 672, www.museumvanloon.nl Van Gogh Museum Paulus Potterstraat 7, www.vangoghmuseum.nl

Van Gogh 01.05.2013_12.01.2014 at work www.vangoghmuseum.com/vangoghatwork

Vincent van Gogh, Zelfportret als schilder / Self-portrait as a painter, 1887,Parijs / Paris, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, (Vincent van Gogh Stichting / Foundation)

GEELVINCK HINLOPEN HUIS A decadent canal-side mansion showcasing 17th-century patrician wealth. Located on the Golden Bend of the Canal Belt, the house was built as a status symbol for Golden Age power couple Albert Geelvinck and his wife Sara Hinlopen. Highlights include ornamental gardens and sumptuous themed salons.

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STAGE OPERA: QUARTETT Day 2013, 17 theatres and ven- THEATRE: NA DE REPETITIE / PERSONA ues around Amsterdam will host Holland Festival 2013 opens productions that are directly After his successful staging of with a tale of love, intrigue, or indirectly linked to World Scenes from a Marriage (2005) heartbreak and torment. Based War Two, all under the title of and Cries and Whispers (2009), on Heiner Müller’s stage version OPERA: DIE WALKÜRE ‘Theater na de Dam’ (Theatre Ivo van Hove is once again of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, after the Dam). Although many directing two works by Ingmar Under the direction of Pierre composer Luca Francesconi performances are in Dutch, Audi, De Nederlandse Opera Bergman. This time it’s two presents an opera that symsome are in English or other revisits the second instalment Bergman performances in a bolises the emotional prison European languages. of Wagner’s Ring cycle, which single evening: After the Reas Valmont and Merteuil fight Various locations, Sat 4 May, leaps from the almost allegorical hearsal (1984) and Persona their bitter, violent battles – a 21.00, various prices prelude Das Rheingold to the (1966). This production by vocal duel interspersed with actual Norse-inspired narrative.

Toneelgroep Amsterdam is in orchestral dreams of what could DANCE: LE CHAT NOIR Composing his most passionate Dutch, but surtitled in English have been.

In their latest work, the point music for the characters with on the listed dates.

Westergasfabriek (Gashouder), of departure taken by the three Stadsschouwburg, Thur 16 May, whom he most identified, this Sat 1 & Sun 2 Jun, 20.30, resident choreographers of the momentous work is also the 20.00, €24.50-€33.50 €25-€45 home of one of Wagner’s most DANCE: L.A. DANCE recognisable movements: ‘Ride PROJECT of the Valkyries’.

Het Muziektheater, Wed 1, Sun 5, Benjamin Millepied was an Thur 9 & Sun 12 May, various award-winning dancer and chotimes, €15-€140 reographer with the prestigious New York City Ballet and creatCOMEDY: BABY I ed the choreography for the film LIKE IT RAW! Black Swan. His latest challenge Boom Chicago gets back to is L.A. Dance Project, which is basics: pure, improv-driven a sort of artists’ collective, precomedy genius. Expect a scene senting three radical works as or two and some current events part of the Holland Festival. commentary, but above all, Stadsschouwburg, Sun 2 & Mon expect no holds to be barred!

3 Jun, 20.30, €20-€32.50 Boom Chicago, every Thur, Fri THEATRE: THE WILD DUCK & Sat, 19.45, €18-€20.

The Wild Duck is widely regardTHEATRE: ALL MY SONS ed as the greatest masterpiece of Arthur Miller wrote All My Sons Norwegian playwright Henrik as a final attempt at writing a Ibsen. See page 22. commercially successful play – Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Sun 2, if it failed to find an audience Mon 3 & Tue 4 Jun, 20.30, €35 Miller had vowed to ‘find some MULTIDISCIPLINARY: SUNKEN GARDEN COMEDY: DOC BROWN other line of work’. It’s based on Michel van der Aa is one of the Netherlands’ most confident a true story, describing how a An English rapper-turnedcomposers of this era, and for his fourth work in musical woman informed on her father comedian who’s already upgradtheatre he’s collaborated with the award-winning English who had sold faulty parts to the ed from the British clubs to the novelist David Mitchell (whose best-sellers include Cloud US military during World War international festival circuit.

Atlas). Sunken Garden is a multimedia opera, performed by II. In Dutch, but surtitled in Still unafraid of bursting into English on the listed dates. rhyme, he’s been trialling a new the English National Opera, utilising 3D film, spoken word Stadsschouwburg, Thur 2 & one-hour show all over the UK, and contemporary opera to tell a story which switches Thur 9 May, 20.00, so should be in fiery voice by the between cunning deception and occult truth, between the €23.50-€32.50 time he hits Amsterdam. virtual and the real, between life and death. StadsschouwComedy Theatre in de Nes, Tue 4 burg, Mon 3-Sun 9 Jun, various times, €50-€60 COMEDY: EASYLAUGHS Jun, 20.30, €14 The international comedy group OPERA: DIE MEISTERSINGER performs a hilarious, hi-octane, THEATRE: NORA VON NÜRNBERG Scapino Ballet Rotterdam completely improvised show at the recently renovated Crea Café is the subject of the bohemian The Flemish company tg Stan In his only comic opera, Wagin the rich French musical every Friday night. There’s also transforms Henrik Ibsen’s A ner distilled poetry and music repertoire: the passionate artist, Doll’s House into a contempoan early-bird show, guest perinto a single unified form that intellectual and romantic, formers from around the world rary story of moral supercilunfolds as an unbroken stream who led a nomadic and promisand open podiums. iousness and social hypocrisy. of music-dramatic dialogue. It’s cuous existence.

Crea Café, every Fri, 20.00, It’s also a subtle criticism of about the romance between the Stadsschouwburg, Sun 5 & Mon 21.00 & 22.00, €10 consumerism. bourgeois girl Eva Pogner and 6 May, 20.30, €10-€30 Frascati, Fri 24 & Sat 25 May, the knight Walther von Stolzing, COMEDY: ENGLISH 20.30, €15 who may only wed his beloved OPERA: LA TRAVIATA COMEDY NIGHT once he has won a singing conDANCE: OBSESSION In turning to the 1848 novel La With a full line-up of Entest. In German with Dutch and dame aux camellias by Dumas, glish-language artists, every Saburo Teshigawara is one of English surtitles.

Verdi chose, for the first time, Friday night is international the most important contempoHet Muziektheater, Tue 4-Sun a current event as the concept stand-up comedy night at the rary dance choreographers in 23 Jun (various days & times), for an opera: the real-life ‘fallen the world. In the duet Obsession, Comedy Theatre in the Nes. €15-€140 woman’ of the title role died in Hang around after the show based loosely on the surrealist DANCE: EL DJOUDOUR 1847. A cult figure, she personfor a chat, drinks and no doubt film Un chien andalou, he once ified glamour and the libertine again experiments with dazzling The French-Algerian choreograsome more laughs with the life, but nevertheless came comedians while the live band light and shadow, in combinapher Abou Lagraa returns with to a tragic end. keeps the tunes coming. tion with a pulsating electronic El Djoudour. Here he shares his Het Muziektheater, Mon 6-Fri Comedy Theatre in de Nes, every soundtrack interspersed with views on the essence of Islamic 31 May, various dates & times, Fri, 20.30, €14 violin sonatas. culture – how the traditions, €15-€140 Stadsschouwburg, Mon 27 May, practices and rituals are rooted COMEDY: SHOT OF IMPROV 20.00, €15-€30 in the core values of Islam: genDANCE: THE RED PIECE The entire Boom Chicago cast erosity and brotherhood.

THEATRE: ORANGE TEA A dynamic and fiery choreogratake to the stage, so the laughs Stadsschouwburg, Sun 9, Mon THEATRE COMPANY are guaranteed to keep on com- phy for six dancers, inspired by 10, Tue 11 Jun, 20.30, €20the passion that can be hiding in in’. Completely different each Each month the Orange Tea €27.50 week, it’s a show that starts big any emotion, that can be smoul- Theatre Company can be seen MULTIDISCIPLINARY: dering for a long time before and never slows down. performing modern plays in the DESDEMONA it bursts out in flame. For this Boom Chicago, every Sat, Waterstone’s Amsterdam production, acclaimed Belgian 23.00, €14 bookstore. In May: ‘Big Boys’ The joint work of three promichoreographer Anna van den

by Rich Orloff; in June: ‘Who’s nent artists from three different THEATRE: THEATER Broek collaborates with the Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ by backgrounds. See page 12.

NA DE DAM Belgian band Dez Mona.

Edward Albee.

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Tue 11, Following the national two-min- Stadsschouwburg, Mon 13 May, Waterstone’s, Tue 28 May; & Wed 12 & Thur 13 Jun, 20.30, 20.00, €12.50-€27.50 ute silence on Remembrance Tue 25 Jun, 19.30, €5 €27.50-€37.50

THEATRE, DANCE & COMEDY

Highlight theatre

MULTIDISCIPLINARY: HANS WAS HEIRI With a mix of acrobatics, dance and music, Swiss ensemble Zimmermann & de Perrot put day-to-day situations in a different perspective, exaggerating, twisting and taking them to new extremes. A language-no-problem act, this is virtuoso physical theatre for all ages.

Royal Theatre Carré, Thur 13Sat 15 Jun, 20.00, €20-€37.50 MULTIDISCIPLINARY: THE PYRE French-Austrian theatre maker Gisèle Vienne has created a hall of mirrors in which nothing is what it seems. Dancer Anja Röttgerkamp moves through a pulsating lighting design hinting at the bright lights of the big city, a disorientating environment that is enhanced by a complex soundscape.

Frascati, Fri 14, Sat 15 Jun, 20.30, €19 MUSICAL THEATRE: TRAGEDY OF A FRIENDSHIP At the invitation of the Vlaamse Opera, theatre-maker Jan Fabre conceived a new work about Wagner, inspired by Wagner’s 13 operas, but also by the fascinating friendship between the middle-aged composer and the young and ambitious philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Performed in English and German with Dutch surtitles.

Stadsschouwburg, Sat 15, 20.30, Sun 16 Jun, 15.00, €25-€45 DANCE: SHEN WEI / DAVID DAWSON The Dutch National Ballet presents two world premieres by choreographers who are regarded as being among the most important in their generation. In the centenary year of Le Sacre du Printemps, Chinese-born choreographer Shen Wei has created a new version of the seminal ballet, which will be performed with a live orchestra.

Het Muziektheater, Sat 15-Sat 22 Jun, various dates & times, €17-€45 THEATRE: EXHIBIT B Brett Bailey is a South-African playwright, director and artist.

Exhibit B is the second of his three installations centred on the European colonies on the African continent, creating a direct, distressing and intense confrontation with our own Western colonialism and racism.

Loods 6, Sun 16-Wed 26 Jun, various dates & times, €15 DANCE: DANÇA MORTA Young Brazilian choreographer Bruno Beltrão and his Grupo de Rua de Niterói have delighted audiences all over the world.

Their newest dance performance Dança Morta (‘Dead Dance’) combines the language, movements and rituals of the street with challenging modern dance.

Westergasfabriek (Zuiveringshal West), Mon 17 & Tue 18 June, 20.30, €22.50-€27.50 DANCE: SHIROKURO An extraordinary, multidisciplinary collaboration between Japanese pianist and visual

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PART IV THE A-LIST

STAGE artist Tomoko Mukaiyama and German choreographer and theatre-maker Nicole Beutler.

Together they have devised a theatrical form for Galina Ustvolskaya’s uncompromising Piano Sonata No. 6.

Stadsschouwburg, Tue 18 Jun, 20.30, €17.50-€25 OPERA: OPERA IN THE PARK Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, being performed in Het Muziektheater today, will also be broadcast live in Oosterpark. So pack a picnic and enjoy the entire spectacle for free.

KIDS & FAMILY of the film is shown on the big screen with the original vocals and dialogue intact.

Royal Theatre Carré, Sun 23 Jun, 20.00, €20-€35

portray with unbelievable energy and great musical precision this fascinating and forbidding realm in which the old is no more and the new is still out of reach. Performed in English and COMEDY: DANIEL KITSON various other languages with Brit comedian Daniel Kitson Dutch surtitles. famously turns down all TV and Westergasfabriek (Zuiveringsdoesn’t do PR, but for those in hal West), Tue 25m& Wed 26 the know, Kitson is one of the June, 20.30, €25-€32.50 UK’s finest stand-ups. You're COMEDY: GREG PROOPS guaranteed low-key yet precise storytelling and a seemingly This American stand-up made instinctive comic delivery. his name on improv show Toomler, Mon 24 Jun, Whose Line Is It Anyway? be20.30, €12.50 fore moving onto other sitcom and TV work. But now he’s back doing what he does best: sitting in front of an audience and just letting the conversation flow.

His shows are then released online as his weekly podcast.

Comedy Theatre in de Nes, Thur 27 Jun, 20.30, €20

Highlight comedy

DANCE: NATIONAL BALLET ACADEMY Over three evenings, the young talents and graduating stars of the National Ballet Academy show their end-of-year works to the general public. Many of the dancers on display will go on to professional careers in ballet and dance.

Stadsschouwburg, Thur 27Sat 29 Jun, €15-€18 THE SEVEN DEADLY DUTCH SINS As Boom Chicago celebrates its 20th year of bringing American humour to Amsterdam, the comedy troupe is getting set to unleash a brand new show. As they note: ‘We’ve been living and working here, observing, interpreting and gathering material for 20 years. Now we get into the national psyche and make fun of things you never noticed, or never questioned.’ Along the way they’ll touch on Dutch birthdays, weddings, the Royals, health service and more. Boom Chicago, from 21 May, various dates, 20.30, €22 Oosterpark, Thur 20 Jun, 17.30, free THEATRE: THE SEAGULL Chekhov’s most well-known and best-loved play; the work exhibits all of the qualities that helped to cement the Russian playwright in the hearts and minds of theatre-goers around the world. Performed in Dutch with English surtitles.

Stadsschouwburg, Thur 20 Jun, 20.00, €23.50-€32.50

MULTIDISCIPLINARY: BROOKLYN BABYLON An urban fable that unfolds wordlessly. The performance combines the haunting animations and live painting by graphic and comic artist Danijel Zezelj with the exciting, cosmopolitan polyphony of Secret Society, an 18-piece big band led

by Darcy James Argue.

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Mon 24 Jun, 20.30, €20-€25

DANCE: IMPACT 2013 THEATRE: MARKTPLAATS 76 Amsterdam Urban Dance ComWriter/director Jan Lauwers’ pany and Art & Entertainment story humorously denounces the College Amsterdam offer up a lack of solidarity in modern soci- special dance performance starety. A catastrophic event plunges ring 100 young and extremely a small village into a deep crisis. talented dancers. The common The community seems unable thread running through all choto deal with its grief collectively, reographies is the Dutch abolieventually going completely off tion of slavery 150 years ago. the rails. Performed in English Royal Theatre Carré, Tue 25 and French with English and Jun, 20.00, €9-€22 Dutch surtitles.

MUSICAL THEATRE: WHEN Westergasfabriek (ZuiveringsTHE MOUNTAIN CHANGED hal West), Fri 21, Sat 22 June, ITS CLOTHING 20.30, €22.50-€27.50 Forty girls and young women MUSICAL THEATRE: from the world-famous Vocal WEST SIDE STORY Theatre Carmina Slovenica conThe Netherlands Radio Philstantly sway between childish harmonic will play Leonard innocence and the unpredictBernstein’s score from the clas- ability of adolescence. Switching sic musical West Side Story live, from medieval to folk works while a newly remastered copy and contemporary music, they

DANCE: THE NIGHTS Some call Angelin Preljocaj (Ballet Preljocaj) the ‘new Diaghilev’. Like his illustrious predecessor he likes to surround himself with artists from around the world. This time he has chosen to tackle themes from One Thousand and One Nights, the enchanting collection of stories from the Islamic Golden Age. Het Muziektheater, Thur 27 & Fri 28 Jun, 20.15, €15-€48 ADDRESSES Boom Chicago Rozentheater, Rozengracht 117, 020 423 0101, www.boomchicago.nl Royal Theater Carré Amstel 115, 0900 2525 255, www.carre.nl Comedy Theater in de Nes Nes 110, 020 422 2777, www.comedytheater.nl Crea Café Nieuwe Achtergracht 170, 020 5251 400 www.crea.uva.nl Frascati Nes 63, 020 626 6866 www.theaterfrascati.nl Loods 6 KNSM-Laan 143, www.loods6.nl Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Piet Heinkade 1, 020 788 2010, www.muziekgebouw.nl Het Muziektheater Amstel 3, 020 625 5455, www.het-muziektheater.nl/ Stadsschouwburg Leidseplein 26, 020 624 2311, www.stadsschouwburg amsterdam.nl Toomler Breitnerstraat 2, 020 670 7400 www.toomler.nl Waterstone’s Kalverstraat 152, 020 638 3821, www.waterstones.com Westergasfabriek Pazzanistraat 4, www.westergasfabriek.nl

ATTRACTIONS AMSTELPARK PLAYGROUND & PETTING ZOO Amstelpark has a very large playground, a miniature golf course, flower gardens and a charming petting zoo – although it’s not uncommon to see chickens and rabbits throughout the entire park.

Europaboulevard 1 AMSTERDAM DUNGEON The Amsterdam Dungeon brings 500 years of dark history to life with 11 shows, seven actors and one terrifying experience! Can you survive the horrific plague during the 80-minute tour? Make sure you don’t get tortured by the executioner from the Spanish Inquisition or get lost in the mirror labyrinth…

Rokin 78, www.the-dungeons. nl. Open daily 11.00-17.00, €21, ages 5-17 €12.50 AMSTERDAMSE BOS (AMSTERDAM FOREST) Amsterdam’s largest park and recreational area makes for a fun-filled family day out.

You’ll find a goat farm (with a petting zoo) that makes delicious homemade ice-cream and cheese on site, a Pancake House, a ‘FunForest’ climbing park, a vintage tram, a botanical garden and a rowing lake.

Bicycle, canoe, kayak and pedal boat rental are available. www.amsterdamsebos.nl

‘pureéd to order’ meals for the youngest guests. A big crafting table is set up every Wednesday from 13.00 to 17.00 and it is free to participate.

Frederik Hendrikplantsoen 36, www.flinderscafe.nl. Open Mon-Tue 10.30-18.00; WedSun, 10.30-23.00 KINDERKOOKKAFÉ The ‘Kids Cook Café’ is a delightful and unique restaurant located near the Vondelpark.

Here children (ages five to 12) do absolutely everything to help run the restaurant, including cooking, serving, bartending, tidying up and running the cash register.

Vondelpark 6b, www.kinder kookkafe.nl. Open daily 10.0017.00, various prices KLANKSPEELTUIN (SOUND GARDEN) The Klankspeeltuin is unlike any other playground. Children between the ages of seven and 12 learn how to compose their very own music using all sorts of sound installations and computers during this interactive workshop. Parents/caretakers are not present during the workshop, but get to hear the compositions at the end.

Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Piet Heinkade 1, www.muziek gebouw.nl. Wed & Sun, 15.00-16.30, €8.50 DE KLIMMUUR Rock climbing in the centre of Amsterdam. Enjoy a fun and safe event for beginners, or a more challenging climb for experienced rock hoppers.

Dijksgracht 2, www.deklim muur.nl. Various times & prices

ANNE FRANK HOUSE This is the hiding place where Anne Frank wrote her diary during World War II. For more than two years, Anne Frank lived secretly in the back part MIRANDABAD of her father’s office building.

SWIMMING POOL Quotations from the diary, Subtropical swimming pool photographs, films and original complex with a beach, palm objects – including Anne’s ditrees, several indoor and ary – all serve to illustrate the outdoor pools and wave events which occurred here. machines. Other amenities inSuitable for children over ten.

Prinsengracht 267, www.anne- clude squash courts, a solarium and a restaurant. frank.org. Open Mon-Fri, Sun De Mirandalaan 9, www.

09.00-19.00; Sat 09.00-21.00, mirandabad.nl. Various times €9, ages 10-17 €4.50 & prices ARTIS ROYAL ZOO ONDEKHOEK The first zoo to be established (DISCOVERY CORNER) in the Netherlands celebrates 175 years in 2013. Admire the Capture the imagination at this truly unique science centre. tropical fish in the Aquarium Kids can choose from more and travel through time in the than 30 experiments including Planetarium. See the giraffes how to develop photos in a galloping amongst the zebras, darkroom, make crisps from a springboks, oryx and wildebeests. Surround yourself with potato, construct a sailing boat hundreds of fluttering butter- and make scented soap. The entry fee covers the entire day and flies in the Butterfly Pavilion you can take home whatever or stroll through the historical park with its centuries-old trees you create. Suitable for children aged four to 14 years old. and a multitude of plants.

Burgemeester Röellstraat 145, Plantage Kerklaan 38-40, www.ontdekhoek.nl/en. Open www.artis.nl. Open daily Wed, Fri-Sun 10.00-17.00; Tue 09.00-17.00, €18.95, ages 3-9 & Thur by appointment only; €15.50 children €10, adults €8 FLINDERS CAFÉ PANCAKE BOAT Flinders is a family-friendly A cosy boat, all-you-can-eat restaurant and café with plenty of indoor seating, plus an out- pancakes and a view of Amsterdam’s canals make the Pancake door terrace that’s open when Boat a great activity for all the weather is nice. Besides ages. Choose from a number of tasty food for the grown-ups, cruises every week and, for a set Flinders offers an extensive price, everyone can eat as many children’s menu and even

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may & jun 2013

FOCUS

SCHEEPVAARTMUSEUM (NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM) Het Scheepvaartmuseum has a variety exhibitions designed just for kids. Sal & Lori and the Circus at Sea is an underwater fairy-tale for the youngest visitors, while older children will enjoy The Tale of the Whale or multimedia adventure See You

recognising it as one of the best children’s museums in the world.

Linnaeusstraat 2, www.tropen museum.nl. Open Tue-Sun 10.00-17.00, various prices TUNFUN Perfect for those rainy days, TunFun is an indoor paradise for children under 12. Under adult supervision, kids can enjoy hours of active, creative and adventurous fun in a huge 4000 m2 indoor playground.

There’s something for every age and interest: from soft slides &

Highlight kids

and gymnastics. DJ Fresh will keep the beats fat with some old-skool hip hop. The festival is organised by Circus Elleboog and the Bijlmerpark Theater.

Anton de Komplein 240, www. iamsterdam.com. 2 & 3 May, free circus workshops 13.0014.45; free demonstrations 14.45-15.00; double bill show at the Bijlmerpark Theater, 15.0016.00 €3.50 STERK STAALTJE Performance venue and circus school Circus Elleboog puts on a contemporary circus theatre every first Sunday of every month. Professional performers join amateurs (including kids) on stage for a fun, diverse and energising show - one that just might inspire you to run away with the circus!

Circus Elleboog, Laan van Spartaan 4. 5 May & 2 Jun, 15.00-16.30, €3.50 KERMIS (FAIRGROUND) Whether you’re one for being flung around high above the city, racing around in the dodgems, being spooked in the haunted house or simply sightseeing from the top of a Ferris wheel, the fairground is guaranteed great fun at any age.

Various dates & locations. See www.iamsterdam.com

SUNDAY MARKET The Sunday Market is a great day out for the whole family.

Hundreds of stalls are set up every few weeks in three different locations across the city. Artists, designers and craftspeople flog their wares and delicious food and drink is on offer to fuel your shopping frenzy. There is always some form of entertainment or crafty workshop on and plenty of kids' clothing and toy stalls to browse through. www.sundaymarket.nl. 5 May & 7 Jun: Westergasfabriek, Haarlemmerweg 8; 26 May IJburg; 9 Jun East Side. 12.0018.00, free.

HEMELTJELIEF Now entering its 5th year, this family festival steals the show every Ascension Day with an enormous musical and theatrical line-up and plenty of events and activities. This year’s theme is ‘Like a Fish to Water’ – don’t forget your goggles and flippers so you can hit the dance floor at the Flipper Disco in style!

NDSM Wharf, www.hemelt jelieffestival.nl. Thur 9 May, 11.00, €10/€12.50

THE AMAZING JOURNEY in the Golden Age. Moored just mini-ball pool for babies and OF DR FAUST outside the museum, the Dutch infants, trampolines and jungle East India Company ship gyms for the older kids, and Amsterdam’s Marionette TheAmsterdam is a hit with crafting and painting for the atre presents a musical puppet visitors of all ages. future Van Goghs. rendition of the age-old tale Kattenburgerplein 1, Mr Visserplein 7, www.tunfun. of the scholar who ‘knew too www.scheepvaartmuseum.nl. nl. Open daily 10.00-18.00, much and yet never enough’.

Open daily 09.00-17.00, €15, ages 1-12 €8.50, adults free The tale of Doctor Faust was ages 5-17 €7.50 often performed in puppet WOESTE WESTEN theatres way back in the MidSCIENCE CENTER NEMO PLAYGROUND dle Ages, and the Amsterdam NEMO introduces young and Aplace for adventurous chilMarionette Theatre delights in old to the world of science dren to get their hands dirty continuing the puppet theatre and technology. Five floors and learn more about nature. tradition with this magical and are filled with continuously Kids can dig, climb, play in the humorous, yet philosophical updated exhibitions, theatre sand, wade through the streams adaptation. Suitable for chilperformances, films, workshops and check out the frogs and dren aged ten and above. and demonstrations. Smell, bugs that call the park home.

Nieuwe Jonkerstraat 8, hear, feel and see how the world Most days a supervisor is preswww.marionettentheater.nl. works. Everything is interacent, meaning kids can play freely 19 & 26 May 15.00, €16, tive, so you can play along. while parents kick back with a under-14s €7.50 Oosterdok 2, www.e-nemo.nl. drink on the terrace.

THE INVENTION FACTORY Open Tue-Sun 10.00-17.00, Westerpark, playground super€13.50 visor is present Mon-Tue 12.00- The science museum’s summer 18.00; Wed-Sun 11.00-18.00 exhibition proves that everyone TROPENMUSEUM JUNIOR can turn their hand to invenLocated in a majestic building tion! The Invention Factory on the edge of the Oosterpark, introduces a range of the most Tropenmuseum Junior was EVENTS important, funniest, most created especially for children useless and downright unsucKICKIN’ THAT CIRCUS from ages six to 13 and is focessful inventions. Children are cused on non-Western cultures. invited to design, build and test A two-day festival where hip The interactive exhibits introtheir own inventions to gain hop meets the circus. Kids and duce children to new cultures their invention diploma. young adults aged six to 25 in a playful way that sparks years can take part in two days Science Center NEMO, Oostertheir curiosity. In 2012, the dok 2, www.e-nemo.nl. Open of action-packed workshops Tropenmuseum Junior received and demos including freerun, 20 Jun-1 Sep Tue-Sun 10.00the Children’s Museum Award, 17.00, €13.50 tricking, trampoline jumping

VISIT OF QUEEN JULIANA AT ARTIS, 1963. ANP / JACQUES KLOK

pancakes as they like with a wide variety of tasty toppings.

Ms van Riemsdijkweg t/o 38, www.pannenkoekenboot.nl.

Various times & prices

175 YEARS OF ARTIS THE ROYAL ZOO

I

n 2013, Artis Royal Zoo is 175 years old.

Back in 1838 construction began on a city park with resident animals. Today, Artis has become the green heart of Amsterdam, an oasis of peace and nature in the middle of the city enjoyed by millions of visitors each year.

The connection between Artis and the Dutch Royal Family has always been close. The Princes Willem II and III were honorary members of the Royal Zoological Society and in 1852 the latter granted Artis the title ‘Royal’.

Every once in a while the Zoo has received Royal visitors, such as Queen Juliana (grandmother of the new King Willem-Alexander) in 1963. In 2004 the now Queen Consort Princess Maxima opened the Pampa, the latest addition to Artis.

ANNIVERSARY EVENTS ARTIS ZOOMERAVONDEN Every Saturday, throughout June, July and August, Artis stays open until the sun goes down, with intimate musical performances from some of the Netherlands’ biggest talents and a series of mini-concerts by students from the prestigious Amsterdam Conservatorium music school. It all makes for a fabulous, family-friendly atmosphere. In the institution’s 175th year, it will be ablaze with the most colourful and fragrant Dutch flowers – 176,875 of them in total, as well as 36,000 plants and two special wishing trees.

FLOWERS IN ARTIS For the whole of the year, Artis will be ablaze with the most colourful and fragrant Dutch flowers, 176,875 of them in total, as well as 36,000 plants and two special wishing trees.

ANNIVERSARY TOUR Discover the history of the zoo.

Every Saturday & Sunday, departs Ape Rock 11.00

PETTING ZOO Get up close and personal with small animals. Every Sunday, Classroom Stolp, 13.30-14.15 & 14.45-15.30

ARTIS IN WARTIME Discover the temporary shelters that kept the animals safe. Saturday 4 & Sunday 5 May, Ape

Rock, 16.00

ASCENSION DAY Help make a celebratory chalk pavement drawing. Thursday 9 May, all day MOTHERS’ DAY Take the free tour of the various mothers of Artis. Sunday 12 May, Ape Rock, 12.00 Artis Royal Zoo, Plantage Kerklaan 38-40 www.artis.nl

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PART IV THE A-LIST

FESTIVALS & EVENTS DOEK FESTIVAL This Amsterdam-based collective of renowned jazz musicians has a particular penchant for improvisation, which is what this annual festival, centred on the Bimhuis, is all about.

Various locations, www.doek. org. Wed 1-Sun 5 May, various times & prices REMEMBRANCE & LIBERATION DAY Amsterdam joins the rest of the Netherlands on 4 May to pause and pay respects to the fallen of World War II and more recent military conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

Then it’s time for a national party on 5 May, as the crowds take to the streets to celebrate their freedom on Liberation Day. Bands and performers take to stages erected across the city, a festival descends on the Westergasfabriek and theatres around Dam square host themed productions.

Various locations, www.4en 5meiamsterdam.nl, www.het vrijewesten.eu. Sat 4 & Sun 5 May, various times and prices SOUND OF THE UNDERGROUND With last year’s successful launch under its belt, this four-day music festival returns for a second edition at OCCII, OT301 and the Vondelbunker.

As the name suggests, expect a gloriously underground experience focusing on alternative and independent music culture.

Various locations, www.sotu festival.com. Thur 9-Sun 12 May, various times & prices ROLLING KITCHENS During a (long) weekend, tens of mobile kitchens descend upon the park at the Westergasfabriek to create an enormous open-air restaurant.

See page 23.

Westergasfabriek, www.roll endekeukens.nl. Thur 9-Sun 12 May, 13.00, free entrance NATIONAL WINDMILL DAY This annual festival sees windmills throughout the Netherlands throw open their doors to the public, and with eight of them located in and around Amsterdam, this is your chance to get up close to the ultimate Dutch cliché.

Various locations, www.nation alemolendag.nl. Sat 11 & Sun 12 May, various times & prices

the festival season. See page 23.

Java Island, www.pacha festival.com. Sat 18 May, 13.00, €49.50 LONDON CALLING AT THE TOLHUISTUIN The first ever outdoor edition of Paradiso’s popular biannual indie music festival combines the best up-and-coming indie bands with an intimate al fresco setting. Part of the Indiestad Festival (see below).

Tolhuistuin, www.indiestad.nl.

Sat 18 & Sun 19 May, 13.00, €17.50/€30

AMSTERDAM SERIES WEEKEND The creative brains behind the Amsterdam Film Week (which brought Susan Sarandon to the city last year) return with a new festival, with TV series taking centre stage. With screenings of prize-winning productions, Dutch premieres, marathon screenings and an open-air cinema, it promises to be a weekend of unbridled serial enjoyment!

Westergasfabriek, www.amster damfilmweek.com. Fri 24-Sun 26 May, times & prices TBA

Highlight festivals

GEERT VAN DER WIJK

FESTIVALS

SPRING SNOW FESTIVAL If you weren’t in town to witness the picturesque Amsterdam scenes that resulted from the real snowfall all too recently, take heart in the ‘Spring Snow’ initiative, which promises equally fabulous – not to mention more temperate – photo opportunities. It’s estimated that there are some 75,000 elm trees in and around Amsterdam, and this year an official 8km walk has been devised to best take in the springtime spectacle of whirling elm seeds floating through the air. Various locations, www.springsnow.nl.

Until 21 May, free INDIESTAD Mark your calendars for midMay, because that’s when Amsterdam turns into Indie-stad (‘Indie City’). More than 60 bands joined in last year, playing at some of the city’s finest locations. See page 25.

Various locations, www.indie stad.nl. Sat 18-Sun 26 May, various times & prices

CHATEAU FESTIVAL Chateau Techno makes a slamming entry into the festival scene with an event combining a unique industrial location with no less than three indoor and outdoor stages hosting an enormous line-up of domestic and international DJ talent.

Westerlijke Havengebied, www.chateautechno.com. Sat 25 May, 11.00, €25

HET LENTE KABINET AMSTERDAM OPEN AIR Event organisers Dekmantel return with the second edition A collaboration between MTV, of their springtime music, art Club Air and other major and culture festival. The move names from the city’s clubbing to the Twiske nature reserve circuit, this festival mirrors the means more room for the diversity of today’s electronic cultural programme but the music scene and Amsterdam’s festival stays true to its musical nightlife. So expect a versatile roots with an electro-heavy festival brimming with deep line-up covering disco, house, house, dubstep, electro, techdubstep and techno. house and techno.

Het Twiske, www.hetkabinet Gaasperplas, www.amsterdam festival.nl. Sat 1 Jun, 12.00, €34 openair.nl. Sat 8 & Sun 9 Jun, 12.00, €39.50 ARTIS ZOOMERAVONDEN AFRIKAANS FESTIVAL On Saturday evenings throughFestival celebrating the out summer, party animals Afrikaans language with four in Artis gather expectantly in days of theatre, literature, their enclosures. music and South African food Artis Royal Zoo, www.artis. and drink. The festival kicks off nl. Every Sat, various times with a Afrikaans Rock Show & prices featuring Jack Parow, Van Coke Kartel, Bittereinder & Tim JAZZ AT THE LAKE Beumers and Wambüseun.

An open-air waterside festival Various locations, treating sailors and landlubwww.festivalvoorhetafrikaans. bers alike to live performances nl. Thur 13-Sun 16 Jun, by international jazz, soul and various times & prices funk artists. Stay on dry land, OPEN GARDEN DAYS get aboard the Jazz at the Lake boat or sail in on your Hidden behind the stately own vessel. façades of the houses along Nieuwe Meer, www.jazzat Amsterdam’s canals lie some of thelake.nl. Sat 1 Jun, 15.00, the city’s best-kept secrets: privarious prices vate gardens. See page 24.

Various locations, www.open HOLLAND FESTIVAL tuinendagen.nl. Fri 14-Sun 16 Since 1947, this leading interJun, 10.00, €15 national performance arts fesITS FESTIVAL tival has been providing Dutch and international theatregoers The International Theatre with a survey of the best and School Festival brings the best most widely-acclaimed perfor- of new theatrical talent to stagmance pieces from around the es at theatres across Amsterworld. See page 22. dam every year. See page 25.

Various locations, www.hol Various locations, www.its landfestival.nl. Sat 1-Wed 26 festivalamsterdam.com. Fri 21Jun, various times & prices 28 Jun, various times & prices LIVEOOST FESTIVAL Held on the first three weekends of June, the LiveOost Festival celebrates the cultural highlights of the eastern district of Amsterdam. Featuring a wide range of art, music, parades and neighbourhood events, the festival focuses on a different neighbourhood each day of the event.

Oost, various locations, www.liveoost.nl/festival.

First three weekends in Jun, various times & prices.

CHURCH NIGHT A national night of activities around many of the most picturesque and important churches in the Netherlands.

The focus of the Amsterdam event is specifically on 12 of the city’s churches located by the canals. Whether you’re religious or not, it’s a fine opportunity to experience and learn more about the city’s grandest places of worship.

Various locations, www.iam sterdam.com/24h. Sat 22 Jun, various times & prices

TIKTAK ELECTRIC VONDELPARK OPENMUSIC FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM AIR THEATRE 24H ZUID / HERITAGE DAYS ZUIDOOST After hosting successful club Steeped in musical and nights at Amsterdam’s Club Four special editions of the theatrical history, Amsterdam’s The third edition of this unique AIR, an epic New Year’s event Amsterdam Heritage Days will famous Vondelpark presents event stops off in the district at the Heineken Music Hall be held this year as part of Aman annual three-month proof Zuid, presenting all that the and bringing down the house sterdam’s 2013 celebrations. gramme packed with dance, area has to offer in a blistering (well, festival) at Mysteryland, Together they will see all kinds cabaret, jazz, children’s the24-hour period. Be you an old TIKTAK presents its very own of monuments and unique atre, stand-up comedy and all Amsterdammer, new to the city festival featuring three stages places of interest across the city genres of music. or a passing tourist, the area’s and more than 30 artists. throw open their doors to the Vondelpark, www.openlucht theatres, museums, clubs, ArenaPark, www.tiktak events. public. See page 21. theater.nl. From 2 Jun, shops and many other instituKUNSTRAI 2013 com. Sun 19 May, 12.00, Various locations, www.open various times, free (donations tions will open their doors and The longest-running art fair €29.50/€39.50 monumentendag.nl. Sun 26 welcome) throw up some special surprisin the Netherlands offers art May, 10.00-17.00, free es. Just one highlight is the LONDON CALLING TASTE OF AMSTERDAM lovers the chance to get their Museumplein Weekend, which NATIONAL PARK DAY hands on the latest and greatThe spring edition of this Four days of summer eating, sees the Rijksmuseum, est in the scene. See page 23. twice-yearly music festival Enjoy the great outdoors as drinking and entertainment as Stedelijk Museum, the Van Amsterdam RAI, www.kunst helps give Amsterdam’s indie National Park Day (Dag van 15 of the city’s best restaurants Gogh Museum and the rai.nl. Wed 15-Mon 20 May, kids and music lovers an inhet Park) takes root in over 250 present special menus of Concertgebouw unite for a various times, €12.50 sight into what’s happening green spaces across the Netherstarter-sized dishes in an weekend of events on and across the channel and beyond. lands, with a refreshing mix of unbeatable al fresco gourmet around the square. See page 21.

PACHA FESTIVAL See page 25. free events and activities. feast. See page 4.

Various locations, After a successful inaugural Paradiso, www.londoncalling.

Various locations, Amstelpark, www.tasteof www.iam sterdam.com/24h. outing last year, the renowned nl. Fri 24 & Sat 25 May, 18.00, www.amsterdam.nl. Sun 26 amsterdam.com. Thur 6-Sun 9 Sat 22 & Sun 23 Jun, various club brand is back to kick-start €20/€35 May, various times, free Jun, various times & prices times & prices

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may & jun 2013

GAY & LESBIAN GAY & LESBIAN TUESDAY BLUESDAY Club night with a special focus on blues, soul and contemporary music. While there’s no entrance fee, you are asked to spend at least €10 at the bar if you’re a single man, or the same amount if you’re a couple.

Same Place, every Tue, 21.00 NAKED SWIMMING The Marnixbad has two pools, both on the same level as the Singel canal. While you’re swimming, you can look outside and feel as if you’re out in the open among the boats and the ducks. Both pools are equipped with the most up-todate gadgets and the water contains much less chlorine than most pools. Which is good to know since you’ll be exposing your most sensitive bits…

Marnixbad, every Tue, 21.00, various prices DRINK & COCKTAIL EVENING Thursdays are cocktail night at drag bar Lellebel on the corner of Rembrandtplein. Get a taste of Sugi’s Mojito, May’s Mango or Electra s Sunrise… And yes, those are cocktails.

Lellebel, every Thur, 20.00 BLUE Kooky clubbing with Amsterdam’s drag supremo Jennifer Hopelezz, whose impressive posterior rivals that of her namesake. Drinks are just €2.50.

Church, every Thur, 22.00

The dress code is strictly enforced: briefs and jocks are welcome; swimming trunks, boxers, sports shorts or going commando are permitted.

Board shorts, Bermuda’s and street wear (i.e., trousers) are prohibited. With DJs Rado, Max Principe and guests.

Church, every Fri & every Sun + Sat 4 May; & Sat 1 Jun, various times, €10 IT’S SHOWTIME FOLKS It’s show time almost every night at Lellebel, the most outrageous drag show bar in town, but Saturdays are especially fabulous, with the bar’s most glamorous stars coming together for a supernova of cabaret fun.

Lellebel, every Sat, 20.00

Theater Carré is attended by the royal family and broadcast live on national television.

Magere Brug, Amstel, Sun 5 May, 20.00, free MSMA MONTHLY MEET-UP That’s Motor Sport Club Amsterdam, one of the oldest fetish and motorcycle clubs in Europe, to the uninitiated.

De Schreierstoren, Sun 5 May; & 2 Jun, 22.00 F*NG POP QUEERS F*ng Pop Queers advertises

Drop ’em and if you measure up, entrance is free.

Club Fuxxx, Sun 19 May; & 16 Jun, 15.00, €8 NYXTYRIA Every fourth Friday of the month is NYXTYRIA at Club NYX, with three DJs playing three different styles of music across all three floors. The staple is ’90s music, while the vibe in the other two rooms will change with each edition. It’s like clubbing roulette…

Club NYX, Fri 24 May; & 28 Jun, 23.00, €10

Highlight gay

DOUBLE HAPPY HOUR Get the drinks in at Taboo’s Double Happy Hour every Sunday, because why wouldn’t you want to start the working week with a hangover? Taboo doesn’t serve boring old beer or wimpy wines, either, so line up for fabulous cocktails and sumptuous shots.

Taboo, every Sun, 18.00 SUNDAY CAROUSEL Be transported to exotic climes with Arabian and Turkish music courtesy of old and new divas at Lellebel, with the glamorous Miss Rini leading the charge.

Lellebel, every Sun, 22.00

GAY MOVIE NIGHT Enjoy a screening of the gems of gay cinema every first THE PONY CLUB Wednesday of the month.

Whether it’s the latest film by If you want to quit horsing Pedro Almodovar, Gregg Araki around and get serious about or John Cameron Mitchell, starting the weekend on Thurswork from an upcoming direcday (and who doesn’t?), you tor or a classic gay flick, you’re couldn’t ask for a better place sure to catch the best LGBT than at the Pony Club in the movies in great company. In latest addition to Gay Street, May, catch 2012 comedy GayClub NYX. Three floors of DJs by, in which old college friends spin an energetic mix of pop, disco, house and electro along- – her straight, him gay – reach side performances to lift your their thirties and decide to have a baby together. The oldspirits. Arrive before midnight fashioned way… and get in for free.

Pathé de Munt, Wed 1 May; & Club NYX, every Thur, Wed 5 Jun, 21.00, €10 23.00, €5

BARBRA STREISAND The multi-award-winning legendary diva and gay icon gives her first ever concert in The Netherlands – which is enough to command up to €300 a ticket, apparently.

Ziggo Dome, Thur 6 Jun, 20.00, €95-€295 RAPIDO FUN HOUSE Epic gay-friendly electro dance fest, with DJs and theme TBA but sure to be fabulous.

WesterUnie, Sat 15 Jun, 15.00, €20-€55

FETISH PRIDE In a city famed for its tolerance, you may be forgiven for thinking there are no boundaries left. But the city’s fetish community found one – and promptly demolished it. Celebrating fetish life out and proud, the inaugural edition of Amsterdam Fetish Pride will include a Mr Leather Amsterdam contest as well as debates and lectures, ‘Kink Academy’ workshops and of course plenty of parties. Polish your chaps and hose down your pleather: this one’s not for the faint of heart. Various locations, times & prices, Thur 9-Sun 12 May, www.amsterdamfetishpride.com itself with the tagline ‘It’s Fun! It’s Pop! And it’s sooo Gay!’.

This ego-free irreverence is also present in the whimsical themes and the cheeky mix of dance-floor fillers and fluffy pop songs.

Jimmy Woo, Sat 11 May; & 8 Jun, 23.00, free

TOPPERS IN CONCERT AT AMSTERDAM ARENA Sing-a-long spectacle in the ArenA stadium from these queer-friendly Eurovision veterans. Expect camp, glitter, glamour, ’70s disco and some exotic vibes, since the theme is 1001 Nights. Dress code is ‘mystic glitter with a touch of gold’.

Amsterdam ArenA, Fri 24-Sun 26, 20.30, €45-€75

GARBO FOR WOMEN REMEMBRANCE DAY For all gay women who don’t During the national day of want to be alone, this informal remembrance for all Dutch war evening of wining, dining, chatdead – especially those who ting and dancing is for you. perished during World War Strand West, Sat 18 May; & 15 EROTIC Two – gay victims are comJun, 18.00, €8 CHILL-OUT PARTY memorated at the city’s HomoEUROVISION & monument, the only national Erotic party for couples, ladies, EUROTRASH PARTY! monument for gay people in transvestites and a select group THANK GODDESS, the world. Assemble at COC Catch the final of the Euroviof single men. If you wish to IT’S FRIDAY Amsterdam (Rozenstraat 14) sion Song Contest on two big attend, make sure that you visit at 19.00; departure for the screens at gay scene stalwart the Sameplace website (www.

Welcome the weekend with live Homomonument is at 19.45 Prik, then celebrate (or comsameplace.nl) and check out performances and an open-mic and there will be two minutes miserate) Anouk’s performance the dress code, the rules of stage. Hostess Miss Sugi La Ri of silence and the placing of for Holland at the Eurotrash conduct and apply for a resis accompanied by stars includflowers at 20.00. after-party until 3am. ervation, which is absolutely ing Ginger G-Spot, May ButterWestermarkt, Sat 4 May, Prik, Sat 18 May, 20.00, free required for this party. cream, Electra Shock and more.

19.00, free Same Place, 25 May; & 23 Jun, And if you want to become a FURBALL 16.00, €30 for single men star yourself, the open stage is LIBERATION DAY Special kilt-themed edition of there for you to shine.

CONCERT NETHERBEARS Amsterdam’s hairy-men party. I Lellebel, every Fri, 20.00 Traditionally marking the end think we all know what these Biweekly get-together for ZONDERBROEK of citywide Liberation Day Church, Sat 18 May, 22.00, €10 bears and their fans. If you celebrations, this free classical don’t know what those are, this Drop your trousers and lose HORSEMEN & KNIGHTS concert on the Amstel River, isn’t for you. your pretences with them, at between the Magere Brug Big willy gay sex party. Dress The Queen’s Head, Sun 26 May; this regular dance party hosted (‘Skinny Bridge’) and Royal code: naked or underwear. & 23 Jun, 19.00 by gay scene stalwart, Church.

THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY Celebrate the weekend with a drink, some snacks and tunes by the resident DJ at this gay-oriented re-creation of an old English pub.

Engel van Amsterdam, every Fri, 17.00

BEAR NECESSITY The biggest and most popular party for bears, hairy hunks, beefy boys, cubs, otters, their lovers and everyone else is known for its relaxed atmosphere where people come to enjoy themselves to high-quality music by resident stars and international guest DJs. Since its launch in early 2008, Bear Necessity has expanded to host regular parties in London and Antwerp, and also makes regular visits to Cologne, Barcelona and Madrid.

Odeon, Sat 1 Jun, 23.00, €15

ADDRESSES Amsterdam ArenA ArenA Boulevard 1, www.amsterdamarena.nl Church Kerkstraat 52, www.clubchurch.nl Engel van Amsterdam Zeedijk 21, www.engelamsterdam.nl Club Fuxxx Warmoesstraat 96, www.clubfuxxx.com Jimmy Woo Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 18, www.jimmywoo.com Lellebel Utrechtsestraat 4, www.lellebel.nl Marnixbad Marnixplein1, www.hetmarnix.nl Club NYX Reguliersdwarsstraat 42, http://clubnyx.nl Odeon Singel 460, www.odeonamsterdam.nl Pathé de Munt Vijzelstraat 15, www.pathe.nl Prik Spuistraat 109 www.prikamsterdam.nl Queen’s Head Zeedijk 20, www.queenshead.nl Same Place Nassaukade 120, www.sameplace.nl De Schreierstoren Prins Hendrikkade 94/95, www.schreierstoren.nl Strand West Stavangerweg 900 www.strand-west.nl Taboo Reguliersdwarsstraat 45, www.taboobar.nl WesterUnie Klonneplein 4-6, http://westerunie.nl Ziggo Dome De Passage 100, www.ziggodome.nl

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PART IV THE A-LIST

SPORTS ROLLERDISCO DELOITTE LADIES OPEN amsterdamsesportweekend.nl) amateurs and serious athletes. at this closely fought football With its mass musical warmGet your skates on (or hire a One of the most popular stops tournament. ups, mid-race live performances pair for the night) for this night on the Ladies’ European golf FRIDAY NIGHT SKATE Olympic Stadium, www. and boisterous closing concert, of roller-skating and dancing. tour, returning for its 18th amsterdamsesportweekend. there’s no escaping the Rock and Get your skates on for the week- Club Lite, Jan van Galenstraat edition in 2013. nl. Thur 16 May, 13.00, free Run ethos. ly Friday Night Skate, an institu24, www.clublite.nl. Sun 5 The International, Oude entrance tion in Amsterdam!

May; & 2 Jun, 19.30, €8 (skate Haagseweg 200, www.deloitte City centre, www.rockandrun. nl. Sun 2 Jun, 13.00, €17.50 Vondelpark Pavilion, www. hire €5) ladiesopen.nl. Fri 24-Sun 26 COPA AMSTERDAM (6km) / €20 (12km) fridaynightskate.com. Every May, various times & prices FRIDAY NIGHT RUN This annual football competiFriday, 20.30, free HIP HOP DAYS AMSTERDAM THE COLOUR RUN tion, dating back to 1934, pits This free group running event AMSTERDAM HASH eight of the best under-19 club Also known as the happiest 5km Some 2,000 dancers from 20 is open to both recreational and HOUSE HARRIERS teams in the world against each countries bid to take home the more serious sportsters. on the planet, the first official other. Part of Amsterdam Sport European title in disciplines This ‘drinking club with a runOlympic Stadium, www. edition of this kaleidoscopic Weekend (www.amsterdamincluding hip hop, breakdance, ning problem’ welcomes both phanos.org, Fri 10 May; & 14 event makes the transatlantic sesportweekend.nl). electric boogie and popping. visitors and newcomers.

Jun, 19.30, free trip to Amsterdam. Less about Olympic Stadium, www.

Sporthallen Zuid, Burgerwees Various locations, www.harrier. racing a four-minute-mile and ROLLERDIS/KO copa-amsterdam.nl. Sat 18nl. Every Sun, check site for more about a colourful sporting huispad 54, http://ek.ido-holMon 20 May, various times, latest dates A rockin’ and rollin’ night out in experience, the untimed event land.com. Thur 13-Sun 16 Jun, €5 (covering all days) various times, €13/€40 Amsterdam Oost. sees participants begin all EUROPEAN SQUASH TEAM Studio/K, Timorplein 62, dressed in white before being AMSTERDAM SEVENS COLOR BOOST CHAMPIONSHIPS www.studio-k.nu. Sat 11 May, covered in different coloured RUGBY Not to be confused with the In the same year that the Dutch 22.00, €5 + skate hire powder every kilometre!

Now reaching its 41st edition, Color Run in May, this running Squash Federation celebrates its Sloterpark, http://thecolorrun. event also operates on the suc75th anniversary, the European EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL 2013 the Amsterdam Sevens tournacom. Sun 26 May, time & ment attracts male and female cessful principle: jog the 5km Team Championships returns The finalists of this year’s price TBC teams from around the world course and receive boosts of to the Netherlands for the first Europa League competition SOCIAL SQUASH NITE (both amateur and professioncolour along the way. time since 2008. weren’t decided at the time of al), as well as 7,000 cheering Amsterdam Zuidoost, www.

Frans Otten Stadium, IJswriting, but European finals are No registration needed; just rugby fans up for a sporting colorboost.eu, Sun 23 Jun, time baanpad 43, www.european traditionally competitive affairs turn up on the night. feast. Also catch the IRB Wom- Squash City, Ketelmakerstraat & price TBC squash.com. Wed 1-Sat 4 May, no matter which teams are en’s Sevens World Series, intro- 6, www.squashcity.com. Fri 31 various times & prices involved.

INTERNATIONAL ROWING duced for the 2012/’13 season.

Amsterdam ArenA, AmsterMay; & 28 Jun, 18.00, €12.50 REGATTA AMSTERDAM AJAX VS. WILLEM II TILBURG Part of Amsterdam Sport Weekdam Boulevard 1, www.am(free for members) end (www.amsterdamsesportEstablished in 1886, this reAjax will be hoping that this sterdamarena.nl. Wed 15 May, ROCK AND RUN weekend.nl). nowned regatta attracts skilled Liberation Day duel takes them 20.45, various prices Sportpark De Eendracht, (inter)national rowers. one step closer to the title.

Live music acts and other enSTUDENT GAMES Bok de Korverweg 6, www.

Bosbaan, Amsterdamse Bos, Amsterdam ArenA, Amstertertainment line the city-centre amsterdamsevens.com. Sat 18 course of this light-hearted run- www.hollandbeker.nl. Sat 29 dam Boulevard 1, www.amStudents of Amsterdam’s & Sun 19 May, various times & Sun 30 Jun, various times sterdamarena.nl. Sun 5 May, universities kick off the Amning race. Distances of six and & prices and price 12.30, various prices sterdam Sport Weekend (www.

12 kilometres cater for youths,

EVENTS

TWO DRINKS INCLUDED!

GET EXPERIENCED!

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Last entree and ticket sales at 18.30 hrs. Persons under 18 are only admitted under guidance of an adult.

THE STORY CONTINUES...

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Visit us at Magna Plaza, Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 182 (behind the Royal Palace, Dam Square). rembrandtallhispaintings.com

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60

CLOSING

BEYOND

beyond amsterdam

A’DAM

BULB FIELDS

From Leiden to Haarlem, bold, beautiful stripes of colour flame across the landscape.

After the crocuses, it’s the turn of the tulips, daffodils and hyacinths – an impressive display that continues into May and beyond.

Get out of town for these don’t-miss attractions beyond the city limits.

FORT PAMPUS This island fort was once part of the Defence Line of Amsterdam, a circular defence system stretching 135km around the edges of the city. Constructed between 1883 and 1920, water played a crucial role in the design: by flooding the surrounding area, Amsterdam could be secured against invasion within 48 hours. The system of 46 island forts presented a formidable obstacle to any enemy trying to capture the city. Ironically, the introduction of the aeroplane made the defence line obsolete just as it was being completed… The water management technology used to create this defence system earned Fort Pampus a place on the UNESCO World Heritage list. But Fort Pampus is not only interesting to engineers and history buffs: there are treasure hunts and games just for children, and nature lovers can spot a variety of wildlife on the island. As with most military institutions, the fort was off-limits to visitors for many years, adding to the mystery of the place. www.pampus.nl

GETTING THERE : from Central Station, take tram 26 to IJburg (direction IJburg; journey time 20 min). The Sailboa ferry (www.ijburgpampus.nl) departs up to twice daily (except Mondays) from the harbour at 11.00 and 13.30.

THE FASHION WORLD OF JEAN PAUL GAULTIER He may need no introduction but he certainly deserves your attention – and fashion enfant terrible Jean Paul Gaultier has always known how to get it, whether with Madonna’s infamous conical bra, Milla Jovovich’s bondage costume from The Fifth Element or his own penchant for the man skirt. Now Rotterdam’s Kunsthal is displaying more than 140 of the French couturier’s gender-bending, avant-garde pieces in what feels close to their natural habitat: an art gallery. Also on display are photos taken by artists including Andy Warhol and Richard Avedon. www.kunsthal.nl

GETTING THERE: from Central Station, trains to Rotterdam take approx. 35 min.

61

FRANS HALS MUSUEM

Haarlem’s most popular attraction turns 100 this year, and it celebrates by presenting the Old Master after whom the museum is named ‘Eye to Eye with Rembrandt, Rubens and Titian’.

‘EXCEPT FOR THE MEDIEVAL CODPIECE AND THE BRA, GARMENTS HAVE NEVER HAD A GENDER.’

WWW.FRANSHALSMUSEUM.NL

JAN BANNINGS

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER ON HIS TRANSGENDER DESIGNS, ON DISPLAY AT ROTTERDAM KUNSTHAL

FOTOFESTIVAL NAARDEN This biannual photo fest presents an overview of developments in Dutch photography at diverse locations around Naarden, including on the city’s famous ramparts.

New talent is presented alongside established names – with one eye on tradition and the other looking toward the future. Don’t miss the double exhibition in the Grote Kerk: Jan Banning’s Down and Out in the South series and Bruce Gilden’s Foreclosure.

18 May-23 June, www.fotofestivalnaarden.nl

CZAR PETER HOUSE The humble dwelling that famously housed Peter the Great during his first eight days in the Netherlands has been fully restored to coincide with the NetherlandsRussia theme year in 2013.

In the 17th century, the area around what is now known as Zaandam was a renowned shipbuilding district, and Peter visited the region to learn about Dutch techniques. Fittingly, the old wooden house in which he slept was constructed from repurposed ship materials.

Krimp 23, Zaandam www.zaansmuseum.nl

GETTING THERE: from Central Station, bus 394 (direction Zaandam) takes you there in 40 min.

GETTING THERE: from Central Station, take the sprinter train to Naarden-Bussum (direction Amersfoort Vathorst; journey time 30 min). Bus 151 (direction Almere Haven) takes you to the edge of the city in a few minutes, then it’s a 10-minute walk to the city centre.

KEUKENHOF Come tiptoe through the tulips, admire the amaryllis and cruise past the crocuses at the Keukenhof in Lisse, the world’s largest flower gardens. For eight weeks only – from 21 March to 20 May – the Keukenhof is a kaleidoscope of colours as the gently rolling grounds are carpeted with blooming flowers, planted in extraordinary patterns and swaths of contrasting colour.

From the days when the humble tulip cost a small fortune, Holland’s love affair with the flower continues: a staggering 7 million have been planted across the 32-hectare park, set to be admired by 800,000 international visitors. www.keukenhof.nl

GETTING THERE: the Connexxion all-in combi-ticket includes bus transport from the city centre or Schiphol airport plus entrance to the park and can be purchased at all Tourist Information Offices.

62

CLOSING

NEED TO

KNOW

Taxis to tipping, your ABC of navigating Amsterdam.

illustration Qamar van Leeuwen

THE EXPATCENTER AMSTERDAM SETTLING IN, SIMPLY. The Expatcenter Amsterdam was set up to make it easier for highly skilled migrants to work and register in the Amsterdam area.

Qualifying companies can start the paperwork before arrival and a single visit to the Expatcenter will complete the process. What's more, the website has loads of valuable information on topics including housing, education, taxes and healthcare. To learn more please visit www.expatcenter.com

need to know

TOURIST OFFICES

For information and to book excursions, visit one of the Tourist Information Centres in Amsterdam: Tel: +31 (0)20 702 6000 Open Mon-Fri 09.00-17.00 info@iamsterdam.com www.iamsterdam.com http://twitter.com/Iamsterdam

NOORD-ZUID HOLLANDS KOFFIEHUIS* Stationsplein 10 (across from Central Station) Open Mon-Sat 09.00-18.00; Sun 10.00-17.00.

HOLLAND TOURIST INFORMATION Schiphol Airport, Arrivals 2 at Schiphol Plaza Open daily 07.00-22.00 TICKETSHOP LEIDSEPLEIN * Leidseplein 26 Open daily 10.00-17.00 *Last Minute Ticket Shop

USEFUL PHONE NUMBERS

TAXIS

In an emergency (police, ambulance, fire) call 112 To report theft or other petty crimes, call 0900 8844 For non-urgent medical advice call 020 427 5011

To keep traffic flowing at peak efficiency, there are REGULATED TAXI RANKS across the city – including outside Central Station and on Leidseplein. REGULATED FARES have also been introduced. These are listed below for a regular, four-passenger taxi.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT An extensive network of trams, trains, metro and boats connects Amsterdam’s neighbourhoods. Disposable OV-CHIPKAARTS, which have an inbuilt chip, can be used on all forms of transport and may be purchased or topped up with credit at locations across the city just don’t forget to check in and check out or your card may be invalidated.

TRAMS and BUSES are the most common form of public transport within the centre, while TRAINS and the METRO are efficient for travelling longer distances. Behind Central Station, FERRIES transport passengers across the River IJ to the north of Amsterdam – completely free of charge.

TIPPING Service is always included in your bill (de rekening). It is, however, customary to tip between 5 AND 10 PER CENT in restaurants, bars and taxis.

Maximum start price: €2.66 Maximum price per kilometre: €1.95 Maximum price per minute: €0.32 More information: www.taxi.amsterdam.nl

BIKES Bike rental companies are located across the city. Just follow these simple rules to remain safe: STAY IN LANE: use the righthand bicycle lane FOLLOW THE RULES: adhere to all traffic signs and lights INDICATE: always signal before turning LIGHT AT NIGHT: it is illegal to cycle without lights – front and back – in the dark WATCH OUT FOR TRAM TRACKS: cross them at a sharp angle LOCK UP: bike theft is prevalent; always chain up to a bike stand DON’T IMITATE THE DUTCH: Amsterdammers are notorious for breaking the rules.

Don’t follow their example!

Our social media team is available 24/7 Regardless of the time, where you are, or what your circumstances may be, someone from KLM is always available to help. Just contact us via facebook.com/klm or twitter.com/klm and we’ll respond within one hour.

64

CLOSING ROYAL INAUGURATION

THEN AND NOW

then & now

30 APRIL 1980 The inauguration of Queen Beatrix, 13th member of the House of Orange to rule the Netherlands.

NEXT ISSUE

Exactly 33 years ago on 30 April the 42-year-old Dutch Princess Beatrix was inaugurated at Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk on Dam square, the 13th member of the House of Orange to rule the Netherlands. The day would become a very tumultuous one, with crowds protesting around a core of the violent squatters’ movement. Last 30 April, Beatrix in her turn passed on the throne to the next generation, the new King Willem-Alexander.

Leading the procession from right to left: Princess Juliana her husband Prince Bernhard, their grandchildren the Princes Constantijn and WillemAlexander, Mrs Van Amsberg, Prince Johan Friso (now in a coma in a London hospital after a skiing injury), Pieter van Vollenhoven and his wife Princess Margriet, Prince Bernhard jr and Prince Maurits.

3-7 July: the English National Opera performs Britten’s Death in Venice

PANAIBRA CANDA MARRABENTA SOLOS

2-13 July: Julidans stages the best of global contemporary dance

3 August: Amsterdam Gay Pride 16-25 August: the Grachtenfestival brings ten days of classical music to unique locations

E VAN EIS

HH SPAARNESTAD

JUL & AUG 2013

66

CLOSING

ON THE WAY

OUT

We asked people leaving Schiphol Airport for their Amsterdam advice.

on the way out

MARLOU VAN IERSEN, 26, AND JEROEN RYCKEN, 24, FROM UTRECHT, GOING TO MARRAKECH ‘We love the Nine Streets. So many nice, small boutiques, and really lovely cafés.’

text & photos Marie-Charlotte Pezé

ANA SILVIA AND HELIO MACEDO, FROM BRAZIL ‘Our favourite part of our four-day trip was discovering the Van Gogh exhibit, temporarily housed at the Hermitage Museum.’

LARS STANLEY HUGHES, 32, SEX INSTRUCTOR FROM WALES ‘Go to Club Escape. It’s the best club in Amsterdam.’

MARINA CAPDEVILA, 27, ANDREA OTÍN, 28, XENIA SÀNCHEZ, MARTA FORN, 27, FROM BARCELONA, SPAIN ‘We were here for the opening of Marina’s exhibit at Basis (on Vijzelstraat). It’s such a great place, with a friendly, laid-back and creative atmosphere.’

editor-in-chief Bart van Oosterhout art director & design Loes Koomen designer Astrid Terpstra & Zlatka Siljdedic staff photographer Marie-Charlotte Pezé cover illustration Lobke van Aar copy editor Megan Roberts contributors Lauren Comiteau, Qamar van Leeuwen, Toby Main, Bregtje Schudel, Mark Smith, Zin (Famke & Floor van Praag) listings Tamar Bosschaart, Eden Frost, Steven McCarron, Dave Nice, Christiaan de Wit sales 020 702 6100 / sales@iamsterdam.com

JOHN DE JONG, 65, FROM VELK, GOING TO LIVERPOOL, UK, FOR A CONFERENCE ‘I love getting coffee at the Conservatorium Hotel. It’s cosy and homey so you can sit there quietly, and it’s close to all the museums.’

HOLLAND FESTIVAL

brett bailey third world bunfight

L.A. DANCE PROJECT benjamin millepied

Translating the disturbing tradition of the 19th ‘human zoos’ into a 21st century installation.

16-26 June, Loods 6

Millepied, choreographer for the Oscar winning film Black Swan, is moving into new frontiers of dance with his dance company.

2-3 June, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM 1 – 26 JUNE 2013

WEST SIDE STORY radio philharmonic orchestra

13-15 June Royal Theatre Carré

INTERNATIONAL

Virtuoso theatre with a mix of acrobatics, dance, humour and music for all ages from 10 years old.

dieudonné niangouna

Words are designed to hit hard, harder than the bullet of a Kalashnikov, according to this Congolese director.

6-7 June, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam Language: French with Dutch surtitles

BROOKLYN TO BERLIN solistenensemble kaleidoskop, lee ranaldo Unmissable world premiere by pioneering ensemble with special guest Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth).

14 June, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ

DESDEMONA

HANS WAS HEIRI zimmermann & de perrot

SHÉDA

PERFORMING ARTS

EXHIBIT B

toni morrison, peter sellars, rokia traoré

One of the greatest film classics of all time, with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra playing the music live.

23 June, Royal Theatre Carré Language: English with Dutch subtitles

CIRCO AMBULANTE theatre of nations, moscow The absurdities of modern-day Russia are reflected in the latest production by acclaimed director Andrej Moguchiy.

25-26 June Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam Language: Russian with Dutch surtitles

Music theatre with singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré discusses racism, war and oppression.

11-13 June, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Language: English and Bambara with Dutch surtitles

FULL PROGRAMMA & TICKET SALES WWW.HOLLANDFESTIVAL.NL

All

brands you could

possibly desire

De Bijenkorf is the leading shopping destination in Amsterdam. This luxury department store offers the world’s most exclusive brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Gucci.

Come and visit our store on Dam Square in Amsterdam