80 Amsterdam Canal Parade boats set to depart at noon for WorldPride highlight

Amsterdam hosts the Canal Parade on Saturday as the highlight of WorldPride, with about 80 boats scheduled to sail a route through the city’s canals. The boats will depart from the Oosterdok around noon and follow a path via the Nieuwe Herengracht, the Amstel, and the Prinsengracht toward the Westerdok. The boat carrying the WorldPride Amsterdam organizers will lead the procession and depart at 12 p.m. The final boat is expected to pass by 6 p.m.

On Friday evening, hundreds of people aged 65 and older gathered on the Nieuwmarkt for Senior Pride. The celebration featured music, performances, and drinks while the guests reflected on the older generation’s fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. One participant told AT5, “In my young years Amsterdam was more tolerant than it is now.”

Extra international visitors are expected because this year’s event is WorldPride. The celebration includes concerts, tours, street parties, and the boat parade.

Pride parties at Reguliersdwarsstraat and the Stopera began Friday. Concrete blocks were placed at the Main Stage Pride event on Dam Square, which started Friday and continues Saturday and Sunday. Barriers stand on the Vijzelgracht.

After the attack in Berlin the previous Saturday, Mayor Femke Halsema said extra measures would be taken where needed, with the hope that visitors notice them as little as possible.

Fewer ferries operate on the IJ on Saturday. The municipal transit company GVB could not complete the schedule for one of the year’s busier days, resulting in one fewer ferry than usual between Central Station and Buiksloterweg, among other reductions.

Weather conditions for the parade are expected to be pleasant summer weather, with temperatures reaching about 24 degrees Celsius, mostly sunny skies that occasionally give way to clouds, and dry conditions.

Evening temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius will not require jackets. Similar sunny weather with temperatures of 25 and 28 degrees is forecast for Sunday and Monday, followed by continued high temperatures but an increased chance of showers.

In the meantime, Amsterdam continues to face a large waste problem that has persisted for several years, AT5 reports. When the city wakes up, many locations in the city center are a mess, often because deposit hunters open trash cans overnight.

Residents send daily emails, messages, and calls expressing anger, sadness, or concern about the trash on the streets.

Around 8:30 a.m. Friday, the Prinsengracht was full of waste near where crews were working on stands for the Canal Parade, AT5 reported. A resident said, “The homeless or the deposit collectors open them. They also just stand open; the municipality no longer locks them. And then the seagulls go in.”

In the Leidsebuurt earlier that morning, multiple trash cans were also opened. A person who works in the center and walks the area every morning said, “It’s just a big landfill here. That bothers me.”

An American tourist on Muntplein noted that San Francisco installed new trash cans to prevent scavenging in the waste. Amsterdam is also adapting its bins in hopes of reducing street litter. A new model with a self-closing flap was tested, but further development is not yet visible throughout the city, AT5 noted.

A municipal spokesperson told the newspaper that the first bins with new interiors are now expected to be placed in September.

A municipal document earlier stated that the first 200 adapted trash cans were expected this summer at locations including behind Central Station, the Kinkerstraat, Station Noord, Museumplein, Amsterdamse Poort, Osdorpplein, and Oostpoort.

That means other frequently dirty spots such as the Leidsebuurt, the canals, and the Rokin will continue using older bins whose flaps often remain open. A resident near Leidseplein told AT5, “I think they have new trash cans in the pipeline, but I don’t know yet how this will go. This doesn’t look good.”