Editor Pick
New Year's Eve
- June 6, 2000
- Rated 4 of 5 by
barjay from New York, New York
I don’t know whether the Dutch celebrate like this all the time, but New Year’s in Amsterdam is definitely something to see, and I imagine is pretty unique as New Year’s festivities go around the world. In keeping with their other liberal laws, fireworks are totally legal and are set off city-wide, by every bar, coffeshop, house party, and passerby you come across. We decided to avoid Dam Square, Amsterdam’s albeit smaller Times Square equivalent, and go to a smaller venue to ring in the New Year. We went to Rookie’s bar/coffee shop near the Leidseplein and lost ourselves in the reverie for a few hours. The music was great, a lot of American hip-hop and funk, and we danced with a mostly local crowd and drank cheap beer, which was somewhat less cheap than the day prior because these were special 'New Year’s' prices. Plastic cups were given out to transport beverages into the street, where, at midnight, everyone and their mother lit up something that banged, crackled, exploded, or shot into the air. This was a grassroots celebration, free of the corporate sponsorship and televised crap we’re accustomed to, and it went on all night long, with people spilling from the bars and parties into the streets and having unencumbered fun. Despite international threats of terrorism on this New Year’s night, and despite a lack of a significant (or palpable) 'police presence' as I’m sure there was in Times Square, the mood was purely festive and carefree, and never did we feel unsafe. Later that night we trekked into the square, wading through a couple inches of red-paper debris from the amateur fireworks, which covered every street and sidewalk, and roamed the Red-Light District, which was packed with other die-hard revelers. I watched as a young English kid came bounding and laughing across a bridge, straight into a uniformed cop. 'Better take it easy,' the cop said, as the kid continued laughing and trying futilely to stand up straight. “We don’t want you falling into the canal.'
From journal Ringing in the New Year, Dutch-Style