Skip to content
Trending Topics: Monochrome Monday•Diving•Indonesia•USA•Marine Life

Caribbean Summer in Rotterdam

56 Comments

Rotterdam was in Caribbean-Latin atmosphere yesterday (19 July 2014): tropical heat and colorful summer carnival (zomer carnaval in Dutch). Finally I had a chance to see it again after being absence last year. This year the Carnival celebrates their 30 years.

The first parade groups were the Summer Carnival’s elected Queens and the runner ups. The Queen from last year was also joining as her last chance to participate in the parade.

30 Years Zomer Carnival
First Runner Up
Second Runner Up
Ortel Queen
2014 Queen
2013 Queen

The children were joining as well, they might be intrigued to participate after seeing beautiful dresses..but I guess they might not realizing how tiring the parade could be, especially on the heat! Some of them already look tired and some were still enjoying the party and smiling 🙂 Luckily the groups with children were mostly placed at the beginning of the parade so they would finish quickly.

Rotterdam Zomer Carnival
Rotterdam Zomer Carnival
Rotterdam Zomer Carnival
Rotterdam Zomer Carnival
Rotterdam Zomer Carnival

The Carnival had 41 groups participating on the street parade and it was long parade. It started at 13:00 and until I was about to leave at 16:00, the parade has not finished yet.

The participants also paid their respects towards the MH17 victims by putting black ribbons in their trucks. Some Dutch people feel this year summer street parade was inappropriate to be hold since the timing was so closed to the tragic event of MH17 that causing the death of 298 passengers with majority Dutch (193 Dutch passengers). Personally I do have mix feeling about it. The MH17 tragedy has personal meaning to me as well as the flight route is our (my Indonesian friends in the Netherlands and myself) usual flight route to visit our family in Indonesia (Kuala Lumpur is usually a stop over to continue to Indonesia, Australia, the Philippines and other countries in the area). I would not surprise if the event was postponed for another week noting that there were even Rotterdammers who were among the victims. In other hand, life continues and the mourning is very personal. In my personal opinion, I would not want my death causing long-term of sorrow to people I care and stop their life activities. It was a tough decision by the Rotterdam authorities to continue the event this year.

Rotterdam, the Netherlands
, , , , , , , ,

56 Comments »

  3. How interesting, I didnt know there was a carnival like this in the Netherlands. Your photos are amazing, this parade really reminds me of the carnival from Rio 🙂 and you made a good point about the tragedy with the MH17.

  5. Beautiful colourful pictures and what a relief to see it Indah. This must be a great Festival and we are so lucky you share a part of it with us. Thank you for that. I had a lot of thoughts at you together with the MH17. I’m flying back in October with the same as a KLM passenger and I think we can share our feelings. 😦

    • There were Australians on MH17 as well, it appears KL is also a favorite stop over for Australians 😦 Thank you so much for your thoughts Erwin. I do hope you will have safe flights returning home, by this time I do hope the airlines will think twice to fly above any conflict zones… BTW, are you in Europe now?

      • Hi Indah, no we are still in Australia and will leave the 17th of August and will stay in the HH Barbizon Palace. We are looking forward for a great time in Amsterdam and the rest of Europe. 🙂

        • Hi Erwin, oh..the warm weather will welcome you here 🙂 (super hot today). If you are going to visit Rotterdam or the Hague as well, please let me know!

          • Hi Indah, Oh super hot is not good. I’m used now to our winter weather in the high ten or low twenty. I don’t think we will have time to visit Rotterdam. We stay only two nights in Amsterdam.

            • No worries! Amsterdam is really nice city to stroll around, I am sure you will have great time there.. and so far there is always wind..hopefully that will help you on the heat 🙂

  6. Great shots of a colourful event. Yes, it would have been tinged with sadness, and perhaps even a sense of anger, but life does go on.

    • Thank you so much Draco! Lots of anger and sadness indeed. Too much pains nowadays happening around the globe in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine…

  7. Very bright and bold colors, it can very well cause over stimulation and exhaustion! Besides that it sure looks fun and interesting.. I am yet to see any such carnival. The mixed feeling are understandable but you’re right that sometimes however hard it might be, the celebration is needed to lessen the mourning.