The Oranje will celebrate King’s Day again on Saturday in Drenthe for the first time in more than twenty years. King Willem-Alexander and his entourage will go to Emmen on Saturday. It will be the fourth time that the royal family will travel to a place in that province on this holiday, the ANP has found out.
The last time was in 2002: Queen Beatrix went to Meppel and Hoogeveen on April 30. Beatrix often chose two different places on Queen’s Day, usually in the same province.
King Willem-Alexander has usually celebrated his birthday in one city since his inauguration in 2013. He has since gone to eight of the twelve provinces. He has not yet visited Flevoland, Friesland, Gelderland and Zeeland on April 27.
Most common in North and South Holland
The royal family celebrated King’s Day or Queen’s Day most often in North and South Holland. Both provinces have been visited nine times since 1980, when Beatrix became queen. This is followed by North Brabant with seven visits. Although the holiday has been celebrated in all provinces over the past forty years, some regions appear to have been skipped. For example, Beatrix or Willem-Alexander never went to Twente on the holiday. The festivities have not yet been organized in the north of Limburg and the Arnhem-Nijmegen region.
In 2001, Queen’s Day was canceled due to the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) crisis. Almost twenty years later, corona caused King’s Day to be canceled in 2020. In 2021, the royal family went to Eindhoven, but there was no audience due to the pandemic.
