Friday October 23, 2026
Good morning, Amsterdam. Today: Houthaven residents fight an express tram plan through their park, Candlelight sets Queen against ABBA beneath the Zuiderkerk's 17th-century roof, and Arsenal Mikebe brings his steel drum machine from Kampala to Amsterdam Dance Event.
At a glance
🌦️ Weather: Hi 12°C / 54°F (2° cooler than yesterday) · Lo 9°C / 49°F · 75% chance of rain · wind SE 28 km/h (15 knots)
🚲 Cycling: Wet from early morning, take the tram.
🌙 Sun & moon: Sunrise 08:19 · Sunset 18:28 · Waxing Gibbous · Moonrise 17:12 · Golden hour 17:58 to 18:28
🌊 Outdoors: Air quality fair (AQI 22) · grass pollen low
💶 Markets: AEX 1,142 (+0.8%) · S&P 500 7,663 (-1.2%) · €1 = $1.12 · $1 = €0.89
Amsterdam-based Booking.com faces EU scam investigation: The inquiry covers fake listings, paid search rankings and phishing risks linked to reservation data. A breach could bring fines of up to 6% of the company’s turnover.
Houthaven residents fight express tram plan through park: Neighbours object to two express tram routes between Sloterdijk and Centraal, one across the Houthavenpark and one through the Oude Houthaven. The city says no final choice has been made.
NY Times previews Studio Drift's new museum in Amsterdam's Oostenburg: Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta are opening a museum for their kinetic light works in the Van Gendt Hallen. The first visitors will be greeted by a giant colour-changing ball.
Police find two pythons in towed Amsterdam car: Officers relocating a car on Wednesday found two live pythons in its centre console. A box of live mice and a fish sat on the back seat, and all the animals went to a shelter.
Amsterdam firm plans giant "vacuum cleaner" in the sky to filter air in Iceland: Skytree plans to build the installation with backing from a €1 million loan from state investor Invest International. It is expected to start operating in 2028 and supply captured CO₂ to businesses.
Amsterdam Zuid to celebrate Brittenpassage opening on Sunday 1 November: The event will also bid farewell to the Minervapassage, which is closing for refurbishment. Activities include roller skating, chess, table tennis, painting and live music, with places still available for some workshops.
Amsterdam venture wins contest for shrinking an atomic clock onto a chip: EpoQ won Photondelta’s 2026 Global Photonics Engineering Contest. Its chip-based clock is designed to provide precise timing in satellites, defense systems and scientific instruments.
Free ADE rave brings music to Amsterdam ferry: DJs from Skatecafé, Pllek and Parallel played on the route between Centraal Station and NDSM as the festival began. Passengers danced, and some took extra trips to stay aboard.
Game On puts playable games beside a level-building workshop: The Maker Space pairs arcade cabinets and modern consoles with a workshop where visitors build and try a game level. 23 October, 11:00, NEMO Science Museum. MUSEUM / EDUCATIONAL
Free goat encounters, farm animals and homemade food in Amsterdam Forest: Visitors can meet goats, lambs and other farm animals in open stables, with a shop, organic restaurant and terrace serving goat-milk treats. 23 October, 10:00 - 17:00, Geitenboerderij Ridammerhoeve. OUTDOOR / ACTIVE
Autumn holiday scavenger hunts and drawing at STRAAT Museum: Meant for the whole family, with drop-in activities through 25 October and the museum open until 21:00 on Thursdays. 23 October, STRAAT Museum. MUSEUM / EDUCATIONAL
Make sauerkraut and recycled lanterns at PampusLab on Pampus island: Families learn how fort keepers prepared for an isolated winter a century ago, making sauerkraut, testing clean water and building lanterns. 23 October, 10:30 - 17:00, Forteiland Pampus. KIDS WORKSHOP
Play GlowGolf, ten holes of blacklight minigolf in Amsterdam-Noord: Groups of two to six putt past 3D figures of KISS, Elvis and Bob Marley, and every ticket includes one drink. 23 October, GlowGolf Amsterdam-Noord (Hollywood Entertainment Center). GAMES / HOBBIES
A children's bookshop turns its workshop room into a baby play area: Unguided and drop-in, so you can come around naps, with soft mats for babies, climbing and building toys for toddlers, and coffee allowed in. 23 October, 10:30, De Kinderboekwinkel. KIDS WORKSHOP
Thirty years of Amsterdam Dance Event, with 1,200-plus events citywide: Five days and nights of electronic music events, alongside the ADE Pro and Lab conferences, running through Sunday 25 October. 23 October, Venues across Amsterdam. ELECTRONIC / DANCE
Candlelight: Queen vs. ABBA beneath the Zuiderkerk's 17th-century roof: Bohemian Rhapsody to Dancing Queen in an hour, played by candlelight in a church finished in 1611, ages eight and up. 23 October, 21:15, Zuiderkerk. DANCE / PERFORMANCE
No Man’s Land: a light-art premiere with live music: Manually layered images made from ordinary objects tell wordless stories alongside organ, uilleann pipes and taiko drums in this light-art concert. 23 October, 20:15, Het Orgelpark. DANCE / PERFORMANCE
Arsenal Mikebe's steel drum machine from Kampala, part of ADE: Nyege Nyege's three master drummers play a steel kit modelled on the TR-808, with DJs spinning amapiano and baile funk around them. 23 October, 20:00 - 01:00, Bimhuis. DANCE / PERFORMANCE
Fauré's Requiem for All Souls, with Pärt and Caroline Shaw: Nederlands Bach Consort and the ArtEZ string ensemble pair the Requiem with Pärt, Shaw, Noordzee and Halasz, around memory and lasting love. 23 October, 20:00, De Waalse Kerk. CLASSICAL
Cats, the stage musical in Amsterdam: The listing identifies a stage production but gives no cast, plot or other details about this performance. 23 October, 20:00, Koninklijk Theater Carré. THEATER
Step inside the modernist Aurora building in Oud-West for free: On the corner of Stadhouderskade and Overtoom, the renovated building has three art installations, a vinyl market and live radio from Perigee. 23 October, 11:00 - 23:00, Aurora. ART / MUSEUMS
Free GGD Expo marks 125 years of Amsterdam public health: Old photos and staff stories trace infant mortality around 1900, drugs and AIDS in the 1980s, and today's homeless shelters. 23 October, all day, Stopera (Centrale hal van het Stadsloket Centrum). ART / MUSEUMS
The Elegant Beasts of Yuzo Kawashima opens at Eye in 4K: After the Japanese ambassador opens the season, Temple of Wild Geese screens with an introduction by Leiden professor Ivo Smits. 23 October, Eye Filmmuseum. FILM
Sweet Home Amsterdama: comedy about finding a home: Audience suggestions shape sketches and improvised scenes about finding a home amid Amsterdam’s housing crisis; performed in English. 23 October, 20:00, Boom Chicago. THEATER
Free entry to Bonds Per Stitch, quilts and migration stories in Oost: Quilts in the Indian Godhari tradition, stitched from used fabrics by artist Rucha Kulkarni and migrant women, hang in Oost's municipal office. 23 October, Stadsloket Oost. ART / MUSEUMS
Turn old clothes into beaded embroidered pieces: Participants use bead embroidery to transform old clothes into a one-of-a-kind piece; the hands-on workshop is open to all ages. 23 October, 14:00, Junk Amsterdam. WORKSHOP
Zeedijk karaoke night, free, with the whole bar singing along: Running since 1946, this karaoke bar keeps the singing going from eight until four, with the whole room joining in. 23 October, 20:00, Casablanca. GAMES / HOBBIES
Japanese booklets, leather notebooks and jewellery boxes on Steigereiland: A studio on Steigereiland Noord where beginners and experienced makers each pick one piece; you book ahead by phone or email. 23 October, 13:30 - 16:30, Papieratelier. WORKSHOP
A two-hour pottery taster, no experience needed: Hand-building and pinch pots in a small group with Ruta, ages 12 and up, your piece fired and ready in about three weeks. 23 October, 18:00, Atelier Kleie. WORKSHOP
Get your hands in the soil at a vegetable garden in Noord: Tuesday and Friday mornings in the soil, learning about vegetables, herbs and biodiversity, with harvest to take home and no experience needed. 23 October, 09:30, De VerbroederIJ. VOLUNTEERING
Free Friday drinks table in English for women new to Amsterdam: About six women meet at a bar revealed a day ahead, chosen from short answers, and it's explicitly not for dating. 23 October, 18:30 - 20:00, Amsterdam. SOCIAL / DRINKS
KAF: Bakery and coffee roastery by three friends in the Jordaan, with sourdough baked in-house, their own roasted coffee, sandwiches and pastries at Prinsengracht 158.
Cafe Iep: New neighbourhood café on the Zoutkeetsplein.
friend: Restaurant serving unpretentious French cuisine.
Good to know
New on Dutch streaming: The Producer (HBO Max), 100 Days of Deception (Netflix), Ek Thi Daayan (Prime Video), Small Prophets (Apple TV)
New on the big screen: The Weight is now showing at 7 cinemas, and Verhalen uit de Magische tuin at EYE and Rialto De Pijp. Showtimes here.
Today's supermarket deals: Häagen-Dazs Macadamia nut brittle (2e free) from Albert Heijn, Alle Hertog ice cream (1+1 free) from Jumbo.
Did you know? One Amsterdam gable stone showed a man reaching his hand into another person's mouth - marking a dentist's home.
21 years ago today: On October 23rd, 2005, a Sikh gurdwara opened on Schakelstraat, with the communal langar meal captured by the Stadsarchief.
Adoptable pet of the day: Meet Pancham - Onbekend ter adoptie, a rabbit at Dierenopvang Amsterdam. Take a look →Looking ahead – next week
The bigger things coming up in Amsterdam over the next seven days.
• Amsterdam Dance Event · Wednesday 21 October to Sunday 25 October, Venues across Amsterdam
• Museumnacht Amsterdam 2026 · Saturday 7 November, Museums across Amsterdam
• Africa Fashion Week Amsterdam 2026 · Saturday 24 October, WestCord Fashion Hotel Amsterdam
• Cinekid Film Festival, 40th edition · Sunday 25 October, Cinekid Festival
• Imagine Fantastic Film Festival · Thursday 29 October to Sunday 8 November, De Hallen - De Filmhallen
• PAN Amsterdam Art Fair · Saturday 31 October to Sunday 8 November, Entrance F
• Bitcoin Amsterdam 2026 · Thursday 5 November to Friday 6 November, Sugar Factory
In case you missed it
Our three most clicked-on items from yesterday’s newsletter.
In tomorrow’s edition: an in-depth Mahamudra and Kriya Tantra meditation training takes place in Amsterdam, Jeff Mills plays his interpretation of Rembrandt's Night Watch at Amsterdam Dance Event, and The Gardens of Babylon holds a Saturday daytime edition at WestWeelde.
Have a great Friday.
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The leaves along the canals are turning, and this week the city is a little louder than usual after dark.
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