what’s on for kids

Family festivals & community events in the Netherlands

The big-day-out category: themed weekends at castles and maritime museums, neighbourhood festivals run out of a buurtgebouw, seasonal celebrations, model-making expos and the kind of all-ages event where the programme runs for six hours and you drift through the bits you fancy. They happen all over the country — in Amsterdam, at Muiderslot in Muiden, at the museum in Purmerend — and each listing names its town so the journey is never a surprise. Mixed ages are the norm, which makes this a good category when the children are years apart.