A year-round calendar for free events in the Netherlands and Belgium. Special festivals, parades, light shows, and traditions in the Low Countries, almost all are free, and none cost more than €15.
Use the interactive calendar below to filter by country, month, region, and theme, switch between 2026 and 2027, and plan your adventure.
This calendar is compiled and refreshed monthly from the sources below. New sources can be added at any time.
◆ Photos shown with attribution under their respective licences.
There is no shortage of things to do in the Netherlands and Belgium, but the genuinely free, truly special events are scattered across dozens of separate websites. We built this calendar to bring them together in one place. Every event listed is either completely free or costs no more than €15 per person to attend. Where a festival, parade, or event is free to enjoy from the street or the canal-side, even if some activities inside are paid, we count it as free and say so on the card.
The calendar covers both countries as many visitors combine them in a single trip: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague sit barely two hours by train from Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Antwerp. Treating the Low Countries as one region makes it far easier to see what is happening near you, whichever side of the border you are on.
The calendar groups events by month so you can scan a season at a glance. Use the country filter to focus on the Netherlands or Belgium, the region filter to narrow to a single province, and the category filter to find a particular kind of event, historic city festivals, flower and fruit parades, music festivals, Pride, maritime events, carnivals, food festivals, light festivals, national days and traditions, street theatre, or medieval re-enactments. The price filter separates the fully free events from the low-cost ones, and the search box matches on event name, city, and theme. Each card links straight to the event’s official website, which always has the final, confirmed programme and timings.
Spring opens with the world-famous Bollenstreek Flower Parade making its way through the bulb fields between Noordwijk and Haarlem, followed by the orange tide of King’s Day, when the entire Netherlands becomes one giant street market and party. If you are visiting for the flowers, it pairs naturally with a day among the tulips at the Keukenhof gardens.
Summer is the high season for free festivals. Belgium’s Ghent Festivities turn the whole city into ten days of free music and street theatre, while the Netherlands hosts the vast free Nijmegen Summer Festivals, the rainbow spectacle of WorldPride Amsterdam with its iconic Canal Parade, and Rotterdam’s Caribbean-flavoured Summer Carnival. It is the perfect time to see the city from the water on a private Amsterdam canal cruise.
Autumn belongs to history and heritage: Leiden’s Relief on 3 October with its free herring and white bread, the towering theatre floats of Brabantsedag, the dahlia parades of Gelderland and Brabant, and Open Monument Day, when more than four thousand monuments open their doors for free across the country.
Winter glows with light. The Amsterdam Light Festival lines the canals with illuminated artworks, GLOW Eindhoven turns the city into a walkable gallery of light, I Light U brightens Utrecht’s station quarter, and the storybook Dickens Festival fills the medieval streets of Deventer. Across the border, Bruges and Brussels add their own winter light and Christmas traditions.
The Netherlands has one of Europe’s richest calendars of free public events. Highlights include the Liberation Festivals held in fourteen cities every 5 May, the historic re-enactments of Kaeskoppenstad in Alkmaar, the maritime spectacle of World Port Days in Rotterdam, the cheese-carrying ritual at the Alkmaar Cheese Market, and centuries-old traditions such as Prinsjesdag in The Hague. Many of these take place beyond Amsterdam, which is why we run private tours across the wider Netherlands as well as in the capital.
Belgium packs an extraordinary amount of free culture into a small country. The Ghent Festivities are among the largest free city festivals in Europe; the UNESCO-listed carnivals of Binche and Aalst fill the streets in February; the Ducasse de Mons stages its dragon-and-Saint-George battle each spring; and every two years the Brussels Flower Carpet covers the Grand-Place in a vast tapestry of begonias. They are easy to reach on a day trip, and we also arrange private tours in Belgium to Ghent, Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp.
Festivals draw crowds, and the best of them are busy for a reason. If you would like to experience one without the logistics, we can build a private day around any event in this calendar, combining the festivities with the city’s highlights, museums or countryside, at your own pace. See our full range of private tours, or arrange a effortless arrival with our private transfers and chauffeur service.
From late November the Low Countries fill with winter light: the Amsterdam Light Festival, GLOW Eindhoven and Gouda by Candlelight in the Netherlands, and Christmas markets in Brussels (Winter Wonders), Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Maastricht and Valkenburg. Almost all are free to wander; filter by the Light & winter category to find them.
Most Dutch and Belgian event calendars are in Dutch only. This one is in English and focuses on what is worth travelling for, so you can plan your trip even if you do not speak the language. Most street festivals, parades, and light routes do not need tickets and require no Dutch at all.
Yes. Every event is either completely free or costs no more than about €15 per person to attend. For parades, city festivals, Pride events and light festivals, “free” means free to enjoy from the street, square or canal-side; a few have optional paid extras, which we note on the card. Always check the official website for the final details before you travel.
In the Netherlands, the Nijmegen Summer Festivals are often called the largest free event in the country. In Belgium, the Ghent Festivities are one of the largest free cultural city festivals in Europe.
Summer (June to early September) has the densest free-festival calendar, but every season offers something distinctive, flower parades and King’s Day in spring, historic city festivals in autumn, and light festivals and Christmas markets in winter. Use the month filter to match events to your travel dates.
Yes. Use the year toggle to switch to 2027. Fixed-date events already show provisional 2027 dates, and the rest are confirmed as organisers publish them. The calendar is updated every month.
It is refreshed monthly. Each month we re-check the official sources for date changes, new editions and price changes, and add newly announced free events.
No. Most street festivals, parades, flower corsos, light routes and Christmas markets are visual and open-air, so you can enjoy them without speaking Dutch or French. This calendar is written in English to help international visitors plan.
Yes, dozens. Highlights include Brussels’ Winter Wonders, the Christmas markets of Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp, Magisch Maastricht and the famous cave markets of Valkenburg, plus Dordrecht’s market (the largest in the Netherlands). Filter by the Light & winter category.
Many of the best experiences are free public events: King’s Day, the Liberation Festivals and Pride in the Netherlands; the Ghent Festivities, carnivals and light festivals in Belgium; plus flower parades, historic city festivals and winter light routes in both. Use the filters to match them to your travel dates.