Koningsdag 2014-2024


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
It was about time that they would go to one of the provinces in the north for Koningsdag/King's day. So, glad to see that they are visiting Emmen in the north-eastern province of Drenthe this year (very close to the German border). I wonder whether the Zoo (which the city is most famous for - it's the main big Zoo in the north of the country) will somehow feature on this day.
 
I imagine there will be some attention to farming. The province only has 500.000 inhabitants and the city itself is the smallest one they will have visited for this day. Not even 60.000 people live there. So one wonders what they can do to fill up the programme.
 
It was about time that they would go to one of the provinces in the north for Koningsdag/King's day. So, glad to see that they are visiting Emmen in the north-eastern province of Drenthe this year (very close to the German border). I wonder whether the Zoo (which the city is most famous for - it's the main big Zoo in the north of the country) will somehow feature on this day.

A while a go there was commentary about how a large number official duties by the Royal House took place within a set area of the country. I assume Emmen is out of that area? Any that may be partly a reason it was chosen?
 
A while a go there was commentary about how a large number official duties by the Royal House took place within a set area of the country. I assume Emmen is out of that area? Any that may be partly a reason it was chosen?

In terms of provinces you could divide the country in 4 areas of 3 provinces each (number of inhabitants in millions between brackets):
- North: provinces of Friesland (.66), Groningen (.60) and Drenthe (.50) --> 1.76 million inhabitants
- East/Central: Flevoland (.44), Overijssel (1.18), Gelderland (2.13) --> 3.75 million inhabitants
- West/Central: Noord-Holland (2.95), Zuid-Holland (3.80), Utrecht (1.39) --> 8.14 million inhabitants
- South: Zeeland (.39), Noord-Brabant (2.63) and Limburg (1.13) --> 4.15 million inhabitants

The majority of the population lives in the 'West/Central' area, which includes the 4 largest cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag (The Hague) and Utrecht and many smaller cities. The far majority of royal events (about 2/3rds IIRC) also takes place here.

For Koningsdag to me it makes sense to ensure that each province is visited over the years. So far, the king concentrated on the larger cities that are concentrated in the west/central part and Noord-Brabant (5th, 7th and 9th; in the South) with the exception of Groningen (6th largest) in the north.

The cities/towns visited (between brackets their ranking in size of municipality and number of inhabitants in thousands)
2014 (postponed due to the inauguration in 2013): De Rijp (small), Amstelveen (top 40, 94) --> Noord Holland (West/Central)
2015: Dordrecht (25th, 122) --> Zuid Holland (West/Central)
2016: Zwolle (19th, 132) --> Overijssel (East/Central)
2017: Tilburg (7th, 228) --> Noord-Brabant (South)
2018: Groningen (6th, 238) --> Groningen (North)
2019: Amersfoort (16h, 161) --> Utrecht (West/Central)
2021: Eindhoven (5th, 244) --> Noord-Brabant (South)
2022: Maastricht (23rd, 123) --> Limburg (South)
2023: Rotterdam (2nd, 664) --> Zuid-Holland (West/Central)

2024: Emmen (29th, 109) --> Drenthe (North)

So, so far the king visited the West/Central part 4 times, the South 3 times and the East/Central and North both 1 time. In terms of provinces both Zuid-Holland and Noord-Brabant were visited twice, while Gelderland (the 4th largest province in terms of inhabitants) has still not been visited by the king on King's day. Both Nijmegen (10th) and Arnhem (12th) would be excellent options for a future king's day.

Scroll down on wikipedia for a map with 'dots' for each city he visted.
 
Royalblog points out that Drenthe is the province in which queen Máxima made her debut on (then) Koninginnedag in 2002; since that time the royal family hasn't visited the province on Koninginnedag/Koningsdag.

Drenthe was the province waiting the longest at this point; next in line are Flevoland (East/Central) since 2006 and Friesland (also North) since 2008.

For Flevoland the most likely location for Koningsdag would be the provincial capital of Lelystad as the other larger towns (Almere and Emmeloord) were previously visited by queen Beatrix.

For Friesland there are multiple options, queen Beatrix visited Harlingen, Vlieland (isle), Sneek, Makkum and Franeker (all west to north-west geographically). So, all visits so far were concentrated on 1/4 of the province. So, I would sincerely hope that they finally decide to visit other parts as well, the larger city/towns are: Leeuwarden (provincial capital and largest city - but somewhat in the same area), Drachten (east; second largest - became a center of population because of a Philips factory producing electric shavers; other than that nothing special/noteworthy (other than that I went to secondary school there ?)) and Heerenveen (south; fourth largest - internationally known for ice skating (Thialf)). All others have less than 15.000 inhabitants so unlikely in the current set-up.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom