190202

Net gepost op flickr.com met de titel "1976 Queen'sday: the beginnings of a national tradition"

Anyone who has happened to visit the Netherlands over the past decades on the Queen/King's birthday knows about the tradition of the 'Vrijmarkt' (free market): young and old change the streets of every city, town, village or hamlet into a giant fleamarket where you sell what you don't need anymore and buy what could come in handy.
This was not always so; in fact, the tradition started spontaneously in one little Amsterdam street in the early seventies of the last century. This is that street, I lived there at the time. The first year only part of the street participated but it grew real fast and within a few years people in other parts of the city started doing the same. Later the whole country followed and later yet the whole thing became so commercialized  that rules were laid out about 'zoning' for kids and professional shopkeepers/salesmen, food sale, etc.
Nowadays the event is so popular that people claim their sale area the night before already and the real party therefore starts at night: koninginnenacht (Queen's night)...
The two shots here are from 1976, two or three years after its inception; the street (Tweede Laurierdwarsstraat/Hazenstraat) was still the only centre of the event but, as you can see, it has already become immensely popular. And all of it happening right under my window. Of course me and my house mates did our own bit of selling as well and always ended the day with  a little party of our own...