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Summer Carnival Rotterdam
The Summer Carnival (or Zomercarnaval in Dutch) is one of the biggest festivals in the Netherlands with nearly a million visitors yearly! Every year the streets in Rotterdam come alive with the sounds and smells from Latin-America! The colorful and musical event is an offshoot of the Carnival in Latin-America and is a melting pot of diverse cultural and musical genres. You will enjoy the Caribean music with more than 2300 dancers from around 23 different countries in the street parade! The Summer Carnival starts off a week before the street parade with an official Queen Election. A jury and the public select the Summer Carnival Queen from a number of candidates. The Queen has to be beautiful, knowledgeable about the festival and the cultural inheritance and of course she must be able to dance on the Caribean music!
The Summer Carnival Queen will get a prominent place in the Street Parade at Saturday and wil be the ambassador of the festival. On the thursday after the election she will show up at the Summer Carnival Beach Party held at the Rotterdam Beach.
On Friday evening before the parade the steel bands compete in a steel band competition, called the Battle of Drums. The winners are named the official Summer Carnival steel band and earn a spot in the parade the day after!
The Street Parade which is always held on Saturdays shows steel bands and thousands of dancers, dancing and singing through the streets of Rotterdam. Big carnival trucks play loud music so that everyone at the streets can enjoy the music! During the Street Parade there are two live on stage concerts at the Coolsingel and the Churchillplein until late in the evening.
Besides music and dancing the Summer Carnival lets you also enjoy the tropical food and drinks from the Caribean and Latin America! At the Coolsingel in Rotterdam center there are hundreds of foodstalls, where you can buy all kinds of tropical foods and drinks. Try a Roti or Bara at one of these many foodstalls!
You don't have to go to Latin America to enjoy the Carnival: come to the Summer Carnival in Rotterdam and you will experience a real Latin American Carnival!
DIRECTIONS Summer Carnival Rotterdam
The street parade goes through the center of Rotterdam along a 2 km route, so there are plenty of places to watch the colorful parade. The Coolsingel is the most crowded part and you have to be there a few hours before the parade starts to get a good spot. If you want to avoid the crowd and have good spot you better go to the Museumpark or the Witte de Withstraat. But you still need to go to the Coolsingel to get some good tropical food and drinks!
DATES Summer Carnival Rotterdam
The Summer Carnival is a yearly event and takes place on a Saturday in July (usually the latest Saturday of July). The Streaat Parade starts at 13:00 hrs and ends around 20:00 hrs.
Check our Rotterdam Events Calendar to find the exact dates for this event.
MORE INFORMATION Summer Carnival Rotterdam
More information can be found on the Summer Carnival internet site or by contacting them directly.
Van Nelleweg 1, 3044 BC Rotterdam
Tel: 0900 4040200 (20 cts p/min)
Fax: +31 10 4049630
Website: www.zomercarnaval.nl
E-mail: zomercarnaval@ducos.comREVIEWS Summer Carnival Rotterdam
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