Kings Day a Dutch Bank Holiday - this may affect on your buying!
King’s Day is a national bank holiday across Holland that will see FloraHolland’s flower auctions and many growers closed (along with most other businesses).
We want to explain how this may affect your buying so you’re fully aware and can make any necessary preparations.
King's Day Date
This year, King’s Day falls on Monday 27th April, so the Dutch flower auctions will be closed. This means no flowers will arrive from Holland to the UK for Tuesday delivery or collection.
Please Note:
This Dutch bank holiday will affect ‘Flowers Holland’ and ‘Pre-Orders’. However, it will not affect other fresh flower buying options, and we will ensure excellent stock levels are available from ‘Flower London’.
If you buy from Flower Holland or the Pre-Order list, please bear this in mind – see below.
Buying information:
Monday 27th April
DUTCH FLOWER AUCTION CLOSED!
Buying from 'Flowers Holland'
If you would like to receive flowers from ‘Flowers Holland’ or ‘VIP Flowers’ for Tuesday 28th April, please place your order for arrival on Saturday instead.
Our webshop will reflect the buying options accordingly, we just want to highlight the earlier buying deadline.
Your 'Pre-Orders'
Similarly to ‘Flowers Holland’, you will need to adjust your ‘Pre-Order’ buying times.
If you would like ‘Pre-Order’ Flowers for Tuesday 28th April, that online buying option is open to you; however, your flowers will arrive with us on Saturday 25th April, and we will hold them in our fridge until your delivery or collection on Tuesday.
You will need to place your pre-order by 8pm on Thursday 23rd April to arrange this.
We are happy to keep your flowers in our fridge for collection or delivery on Tuesday — just let us know.
Any Questions?
We hope we’ve covered everything. However, if you have any queries, or would like to place the order with us directly, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
What's it all about?
If you’ve been a florist for a while you’re probably quite familiar with King’s Day or Koningsdag as the Dutch call it. As a national bank holiday, it often affects flower buying.
It truly is an orange-filled celebration held every year for the king’s birthday on 27th April. It is renowned for being one of the biggest and most colourful festivities in the Netherlands, an opportunity for “orange madness” or oranjegekte, a kind of frenzy named for the national colour.
Every year celebrations are not just limited to King’s Day. ‘King’s Night’, the night before King’s Day, it is celebrated extensively in many cities,with a number of free festivals, live music in pubs and outside in the streets, along with DJs playing in restaurants and clubs. As you can imagine, it’s an evening for dancing and celebrating together ahead of the King’s birthday.
If you’re thinking – hang on a moment – wasn’t it previously Queen’s Day? You’re right! Queen Beatrix abdicated on Koninginnedag 2013, and her son, Willem-Alexander, ascended the throne (the first king since the observance of the national holiday). As a result, the holiday became known as Koningsdag from 2014 onwards, and the celebration was moved three days ahead to 27 April, his actual birthday.
I don't remember this last year, does it normally affect flowers and florists?
The celebration takes place on the 27th April each year. Last year it fell on a Sunday, and the year before it was a Saturday, so it didn’t affect anything.
It’s only when this falls on a weekday that all three of the Dutch flower auctions (and direct purchasing and collection from growers) would be affected, with no flowers or other related products leaving Holland.
Most years florists would usually need to order flowers earlier to ensure they have everything they need. It may be that with two years of it falling on a weekend it’s not at the forefront of our minds.
Following years!
We don’t know how far you plan in advance but, for the next four years, King’s Day will fall on weekdays, which will affect buying schedules and trading at FloraHolland’s Dutch auctions and throughout our industry.
We will of course remind you each year.
