Culture and art, innovation, epic rooftops and a free festival: 3 awesome things in Leiden this week!

Leiden is celebrating its 10th anniversary of the Stadslab Leiden soon and it will be held in ten different locations in the Singelpark. It’s also the ‘longest’ day of the year on the 21th, our start-up neighbours are contending in the final of Gulliver and on top of the majestic Lakenhal is opening it’s doors again by throwing the city a free festival!

As you can see there is plenty to get your teeth into in Leiden these upcoming days and this weekend. So what’s going down exactly and why should we make the trip to Leiden?

 1. Midsummers Day and Night in Leiden

Like we just said, Leiden is celebrating its 10th anniversary of the Stadslab Leiden soon and it will be held in ten different locations in the Singelpark (we got a big article coming up on that new and impressive park in Leiden). So, what’s happening in the day and what’s happening in the night this year?

As you might know, the 21st of June is the day of the year with the most hours of daylight. And the night and it’s celebrations at the Hortus Botanicus have always been a bit of a tradition. This year is going to be great with the expected lovely weather.

Midsummer’s Day programme:

  1. PLNT The Field – 10 am – ‘The most sustainable kilometre in the Netherlands’ by 2025.
  2. Lammermarkt – 11 am – Global goals, local actions.
  3. New Energy – 12 pm – Reaching out to citizens who don’t ‘naturally’ work and get involved.
  4. PLNT The Roof – 1 pm – How roofs are perfect for sustainable means.
  5. Huigpark – 2 pm – Get moving!
  6. The flour factory – 10 am – Meet De Meelfabriek
  7. Plantsoen – 3 pm – How you draw Leiden cartoon heroes.
  8. Boisotkade – 5 pm – ‘The longest park in Europe.’
  9. Old Observatory – 6 pm – Cake festival!

Hortus Botanicus Leiden – 8 pm – Anniversary celebration.

PLNT will be holding two of these summer events, one in the ‘field’ and the other on the roof!

Check our event listing here!

 

    Most of the program is at our epic rooftop at PLNT Leiden
Midsummer’s night programme:
  1. Illegal office hours – 7:30 pm – Medicinal plants in Chinese medicine.
  2. The scent installation of Attic Lab Perfumes – 7:30 pm – What can you smell?
  3. ROEM X Hortus – 7:30 pm – Small art exhibition.
  4. Biotechnology – 7:30 pm – Looking at roots, stem and leaves of plants.
  5. Tasting Tea in the Chinese Herb Garden – 7:30 pm – Try Chinese herbal tea.
  6. Witch table – 7:30 pm – Learn about medicinal plants.
  7. Japanese Calligraphy (English only) – 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm – All about “Reiwa.”
  8. Popkoor Prestige – 7:30 pm – Choir.
  9. Al Dente Theatre Group – 8 pm, 8:30 pm and 9 pm (15 mins) – Theatre performance.
  10. Tailor-made Versjes – 8:30 pm – Tailor-made verses.
  11. Upper Button Open – 9 pm – Band.
  12. The Stream Sweet Tally Tour – 10:15 pm – Leiden Band.
  13. Cuban Salsa workshop – 11 pm  – Learn to dance!
  14. Old Observatory – 7:30 pm – Tour guide to one of the telescopes.
  15. Radio @ Sternrewacht visitor centre – 7:30 pm – Talk about radio mast.
  16. Masterclass ‘Summer Kings’ – 8 pm, 9 pm, 10 pm – Learn about summer wine!
  17. Pecha Kucha Plus – 9 pm – Presentations about the city photographers and Leiden.

Check our event listing here!

    The evening is playing out in the magical Hortus Botanicus

Friday 21st June 2019 10:00 am – 10:00 pm.

3. Opening festival Museum De Lakenhal

If you’re after a free opening festival or just into great art, then this one is for you! This grand art museum, one of the best museums of Leiden, has been reopened to the public after a couple of years of renovations. There will be interviews, shows, music, workshops, barista and a food truck, what more could you want? Oh, and did we mention it’s all for free?
The other, new, side of the Lakenhal
Come and listen to DansBlok, De Veenfabriek, PS | theatre, Wieteke van Zeil, Jong K&G, Domino and many others!
Check our event listing here!

Museum De Lakenhal

Oude Singel 28 2312 RA LEIDEN
Will you be going? Let us know in the comments!
Abuzer van Leeuwen 🇳🇱
Abuzer van Leeuwen 🇳🇱http://www.abuzervanleeuwen.nl
Abuzer founded DutchReview a decade ago because he thought expats needed it and wanted to make amends for the Dutch cuisine. He has a Masters in Political Science and IT but somewhere always wanted to study history or good old football. He also a mortgage in the Netherlands and will happily tell you too how to get one. Born and raised in Rotterdam, Abuzer now lives in Leiden but is always longing back to his own international year in Italy.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related posts

Latest posts

Where are the ‘I amsterdam’ letters? The complete selfie guide

Here's a riddle for you: what weighs 250 kilos, is two metres high, and features in around 6,000 selfies a day? The I amsterdam...

Dutch companies are “selling” residence permits via the highly skilled migrant scheme

The Netherlands employs its so-called Kennismigranten (highly skilled migrants) in many sectors, from IT to academia to... nail salons, apparently. Yup, according to research by...

Expats may soon have to take an integration course when living in Amsterdam

If you're an expat living in Amsterdam, you could soon be asked to take Dutch language classes, history lessons, and volunteer time. That's right,...

It's happening

Upcoming events

The latest Dutch news.
In your inbox.