Faces of Rotterdam’s multiculturalism

Photos of Rotterdam Unlimited

Carnival comes to Europe on the streets of Rotterdam. This is the largest festival in the Netherlands, where colour meets energy and explodes across the city.

The Rotterdam Unlimited festival is held over a whole weekend with a drum battle, free outdoor concerts, poetry readings, and art events. But the street parade on the Saturday afternoon is the highlight.

Yesterday I wrote all about the Rotterdam Unlimited festival and you can read that post to find out more about the history.

And while the development of the festival and the work involved to put it together every year are very interesting, it’s the spectacle that really draws you in.

A lot of work goes into the costumes and the floats that are paraded through the main streets of Rotterdam each year. Some groups work intensely for just a few days to prepare while others are more gradual, taking almost two months to pull everything together.

When you see them all, dazzling in the sunlight, it doesn’t matter. They’re all spectacular and for several hours they snake through the city streets like a musical rainbow serpent.

The crowds of onlookers along the footpaths are here for a show. They understand the significance of the event – the celebration of diversity and of the assimilation of people from a new world colonised by the Dutch but always true to its own culture.

The people drinking and cheering as the floats pass are, by the act of being here, part of this acceptance of multiculturalism.

But, let’s be honest… they’re mainly here for the show.

And so, with that in mind, let me share some more photos from the street parade of Rotterdam Unlimited.

Time Travel Turtle was a guest of Rotterdam Marketing but the opinions, over-written descriptions and bad jokes are his own.