Carnaval

On Friday the 25th of February, ESSENCE invited its members to all celebrate Carnaval together in the Café de Kater, and it was a blast!

We set up a WhatsApp group chat so everyone who was down to party could join us. This group chat turned out to be very useful as Carnaval in the Netherlands is chaotic, and there were so many people in the streets of Breda that you could easily get lost. The group chat even got used for the rest of the Carnaval days so the ESSENCE members could have even more fun together.

So on Friday, I and some friends got ready at my place, of course, we dressed up, and after a nice dinner, we made our way to the city center. I have celebrated Carnaval before, but in Luxembourg and never in the Netherlands. I honestly have to say it’s an experience. The streets were full of dressed up people, drinking and having a blast. After walking through the huge crowd, we finally made it to de Kater, where some ESSENCE members were already partying. The café was packed to the brim, and the music was incredibly loud. Mostly Dutch music, with some German songs in between (which I thoroughly enjoyed!) got played. I felt like we were a bit late to the party, and we had some catching up to do drink wise. After some time, more and more members joined, and in the end, we were a lot of people. We were dancing drinking and had a good time! It was nice to see so many people join; the international maybe for their first Dutch Carnaval, and the dutchies showing us how you authentically celebrate this special time of the year. I appreciate the Dutch people opening and showing their culture to the international, and I feel like the feeling is the same the other way round!

As an international that already knew of Carnaval and celebrated it mainly in a German way, the Dutch Carnaval is a lot more different than I would have thought. The music is intense, the crowds are massive, but the people are just in a good mood enjoying themselves. I believe that everyone had a good time and being there all together was an experience I won’t forget so quickly!