Spring/Summer events in Eindhoven.

This will be the latest blog of the best of Eindhoven. We want to give you an overview of big events that you can’t miss in the next months!

April 29 – April 30: Queens night and Queens Day:
April 30 is a National Holiday, originally to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. The night before, people from over the whole country come to visit Eindhoven because of the Queens night! A lot of DJ’s and artists will perform in the inner city of Eindhoven on the locations Stadhuisplein, Stationsplein and the Markt. On Queens day, there are also a lot events. In many cities and villages Queens day is celebrated with a market where everybody can sell whatever they want on the streets. Look for a complete overview of activities in Eindhoven on: http://www.oranjedegekste.nl/

May 25 – May 28: Eindhoven Culinair
Eindhoven Culinair takes place in the Stadswandelpark. During the event you could taste different food, prepared by the regional restaurants. There are is also a lot of entertainment and music.

June 8, 9, 15 and 17: Guus Meeuwis – Concert: Groots met een zachte G
Guus Meeuwis performs in the Philips Stadium every year in June. Guus Meeuwis is a Dutch singer who score several hits in the Netherlands. He wrote for example the songs ‘Het is een nacht’, ‘Per spoor’ and ‘Brabant’. The concerts these year are even more special, because the Netherlands national football team have to play these days in the UEFA Euro 2012. It’s a really great experience even if you don’t like the music.

 

July 12 – July 15: Eindhoven Ballooning
This is an annual hot air balloon festival in Eindhoven. There is a braderie, a lot of music and a funfair. You could also fly with one of the air balloons yourself! You have to register then. The entrance is for free. Look for more information on: http://www.eindhovenballooning.nl/

August 3 – August 12: Park Hilaria
Park Hilaria is one of the biggest festivals in Eindhoven and visited by an average of 600.000 visitors every year. There are more than a hundred attractions, but also food kiosk, live shows, street entertainment and circus acts. Look this video in English which introduces Park Hilaria in Eindhoven.

August 10 – August 12: Folkwoods Festival
Folkwoods is an open air music festival in Eindhoven. The organizers of this festival want to organize a good festival, just like the old days. It is a festival for people who like tuneful music from the Netherlands, Europe and the rest of the world. The Folkwoods Festival takes place in the middle of the woods. The festival has a good reputation among the visitors and artists.

August 24 – August 25: Brabant Open Air
This year for the first time in Eindhoven! Brabant Open Air will transform the square in front of the Klokgebouw in Eindhoven into a festival terrain with a huge stage. Kaiser Chiefs, Racoon, Miss Montreal and They Kyteman Orchestra will perform here!

Get ready for Carnaval!

Next week it will begin… The biggest party in the south of the Netherlands.  CARNAVAL! No explanation is needed for the citizens of North Brabant and Limburg, but here we'll give a short description for our foreign visitors:

Carnaval started as a catholic party, where you had to eat as much as you could before the Lent began. The name carnaval has its origins from the Latin expression carna vale, which means ‘farewell to meat’.
Well… not much has been left from this original catholic party. Nowadays carnaval is well known as the party where you have to drink and party as much as you can. Everybody will wear a costume as well. Officially, Carnaval begins on a Sunday (this year February 19th) and takes place for three days. But almost everyone will start already on Friday (February 17th).   

Traditions during Carnaval vary from town to town. One tradition is that every city and village change their name during Carnaval. So for example Den Bosch is known as ‘Oeteldonk’ (which means Frog hill) during this period. Eindhoven is called ‘Lampengat’ (this refers to lamps from Philips).

What do you have to do with carnaval?

1) Get a costume
In North Brabant and Limburg , there are many stores especially for carnaval clothes. However, these clothes are sometimes really expensive. You could also be creative yourself. Take a look at your old clothes and costumes and create something with it. For example, when you have an old leather jacket you can go as a rockstar. If you have some glitter stuff, you can go as diva. Or maybe your parents have some old clothes and you can go as a hippie. Also big clothes companies like h&m or coolcat have sales around February with clothes no one would ever wear, except with carnaval. These are often really cheap and most importantly, when you create something by yourself you will have a very original costume.

2) Learn the songs and dances of the carnaval hits
Also very important is the traditional carnaval music. Okay, it’s not the best music in the world and the lyrics don’t often make sense at all (lyrics like: ‘I want sex with the bold one’ and ‘there is a horse in the hall….’ ), but the music makes the party complete. Here are some carnaval hits which you will certainly hear in Eindhoven.

3) Go to the carnaval parade in Eindhoven
This takes place on Saturday February 18^th.  A lot of carnaval associations created beautiful cars, acts and music and will show these during the parade. The parade will start in ‘Fuutlaan’ at 13:11 and goes via ‘Parklaan’ and ‘Dommelstraat’ to the ‘Stationsplein’.

4) Go to Mad Monday in Eindhoven city centreThere will be a football match between PSV and EVV, a Mother-Mad-Monday-Beauty-contest and performers like De Gebroeders Ko and Bonnie St. Clair.

5) Visit one day a different town.Every town has its own traditions during Carnaval. Eindhoven differs a lot from example Den Bosch or Maastricht. Also little towns around Eindhoven (for example: Geldrop, Neunen, Valkenswaard, Veldhoven) differ from Eindhoven. So you should try another town for one night. 

6) PARTY EVERY NIGHT!
Or almost every night…

7) Eating herring on Wednesday
If you’re still able to get out of your bed after five nights of partying, you should go to the tradidional ‘haringhappen’ (eating herring) on the Wednesday after Carnaval.

ENJOY!

The Best of Eindhoven

Eindhoven is also known as the light city. If you Google ‘highlights of Eindhoven’ you will possibly get links about PSV, Philips, the van Abbemuseum and the Evoluon.
But Eindhoven is much more than that!

A well-known slogan of Eindhoven is: “Eindhoven de Gekste!” (translated: Eindhoven the Craziest!). If you visit Eindhoven during Carnaval you will possibly hear this a hunderd times. On this blog we would like to show you the best of Eindhoven. That could be about anything. For example the fact that Eindhoven is not only the craziest city, but it has also been awarded with the most generous city (2010), the most intelligent city (2011) and the best city centre (2011)! We also want to give you tips about activities, highlights and events. A look in the nightlife on Stratumseind for example can’t be missed in a city trip to Eindhoven.   Still not convinced that Eindhoven is special? Look at the following events which have taken place just in the last four months:

Glow
The international light festival in Eindhoven. Every year in November, Eindhoven is the decor and podium for Glow. During this week the city is decorated by light art, designed by national and international designers. You can follow the walking tour in Eindhoven to see all these light arts on different locations.
More information: http://www.gloweindhoven.nl/

 Next Glow: 10-17 November 2012

Dutch Design Week

One of the biggest design events in the Netherlands. It takes place in Octobre on different locations. The newest ideas and technologies are shown here. Last year, 180.000 people attended the event.
More information: http://dutchdesignweek.nl/

Next Dutch Design Week: 20-28 October 2012

Marathon Eindhoven

The marathon of Eindhoven is a yearly event. The marathon always takes place in October. During this marathon, Eindhoven is full of celebration.

Next Marathon: October 14th 2012

Concerts Klokgebouw 

 Many great artists (including Marco Borsato and Armin van Buuren) have already performed in the Klokgebouw in Strijp S in Eindhoven and many will come!
More information on: http://www.klokgebouw.nl/