News of: Friday, August 10 2012,
Today is the start of the yearly 10 day Grachtenfestival ('Canal Festival').
The festival consists of a long list of classical music concerts, during 10 days. The concerts are held at various locations throughout Amsterdam.
The main event of the Grachtenfestival is the Prinsengracht Concert on Saturday August 18. This concert is an open air concert in front of the Pulitzer hotel, on floats in the Prinsengracht Canal.
The event is free, and attracts thousands of viewers every year, many of whom come by boat.
The concert starts at 8pm, but it is advisable to come earlier if you want to have a good place.
The open air concert is how it all started, and over the years the event has grown into the multi-day, multi-location festival that it now is.
It is called Grachtenfestival because the concert locations used to be all in the canal area in the centre, but this has developed too. Nowadays, the festival is known for its special locations, rather than the canal side locations. For example, this year a concert will be given in a building shaft of the new North/South metro line.
See the Grachtenfestival website for more information, also in English.
