Description: Throughout the year, the dedicated team behind this superb annual film festival are busy programming recently released gay and lesbian movies from around the world, alongside old favourites, such as camp classic 'ABBA: The Movie.' It retains a nicely alternative edge and offerings throw up something for everyone – regardless of your shade of pink. Enormously popular, not least as it offers a rare opportunity to see most of the films; reservations are strongly advised.

 

Description: This perpetually engaging and thought-provoking festival screens recent international documentaries and features which address human rights and human dignity. It always opens with a powerful movie such as 'Hotel Rwanda,' 'The Magdalene Sisters' or 'Anna. Seven Years on the Frontline.' The celluloid is complemented by discussions, debates and panel talks with directors and activists, as well as key speakers; previous editions have included CNN reporter Peter Arnett and BBC correspondent Kate Adie.

 

Description: Over one festive weekend each year, many of Amsterdam's diverse museums open to the public with either free or reduced-entrance prices – including the Amsterdam Historic Museum, Jewish Historic Museum, Filmmuseum, NEMO science museum and the Hortus Botanicus. Each year has a special theme which highlights various aspects of the collections. Additionally, it's not just limited to Amsterdam; around 500 museums participate across the whole of the Netherlands.

 

Description: This superb festival devotes itself to the cult, horror, thriller, fantasy, sci-fi and animation genres, with a selection that is painstakingly conceived, never disappointing. The programme – featuring more than 200 screenings of films from all around the world – includes many premières, as well as a retrospective focusing on the work of one director. The majority of foreign films are subtitled in English. In 2009, it celebrates its 25th anniversary.

 

Description: Each year on 'Queen's Day,' Amsterdam and the rest of the country throw a party to celebrate the birthday (30 April) of the late Queen of the Netherlands, Juliana. In theory, anyway. The national celebration is essentially just a good excuse to have one big party, and folks take to the canals and streets to sell goods, hang out at cafés, play carnival games, watch parades, and just make merry. It can be quite a rambunctuous affair. Bands perform throughout the day at various bars and on outdoor stages, sound systems are set up and there are loud parties on every street corner. Many celebrants wander about dressed in various shades of orange, a color that pays tribute to the Dutch royal lineage, the House of Orange.

 

Description: The results of this prestigious competition of award-winning professional photojournalism are revealed in this exhibition which opens in Amsterdam, before traveling on to around 40 countries. As well as a retrospective dedicated to the oeuvre of the overall winner, other award-winning photos – divided into themes such as Sports Action, Daily Life, Nature and Portraits – are also on display. Be warned that the some of the images can often be disturbing – showing victims of earthquakes, flooding and war – and the potency of the still image must never be underestimated.

 

Description: The 1945 liberation of the Dutch from German occupation is celebrated each year on 5 May with a national holiday: parties and music festivals are held throughout the country. In Amsterdam, the reigning monarch, Queen Beatrix, attends an open-air classical music concert which takes place on a floating stage on the River Amstel, while an outdoor pop concert draws an enormous crowd on the Museumplein. The day before sees more sober reflection as the royal family attends a remembrance service honouring the fallen at the Nieuwe Kerk, followed by the laying of wreaths at the foot of the nearby National Monument. (A special service remembering persecuted gays and lesbians takes place at the Homomonument.) A two-minute silence is observed throughout the Netherlands at 8pm.

 

Description: This innovative, cross-pollinating festival was founded in 1947, following World War II, with the aim of reinvigorating the country's somewhat shell-shocked cultural life. Each year, it mounts a staggering number of highbrow productions (Dutch and international), at leading venues around town – including Het Muziektheater, Westergasfabriek and the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ – all of which blur the boundaries between dance, drama, opera, the visual arts, film and music. And, perpetually adventurous, works by established icons such as Peter Greenaway, Louis Andriessen and Peter Sellars, are staged alongside unknown experimental theater makers.

 

Description: Ever wonder how the other half lives? This annual event grants public access to some of Amsterdam's most beautiful private gardens. A single pass buys entrance to the grounds of a host of canal homes dating from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The well-kept gardens showcase a variety of design styles and also offer intimate concerts, sell garden decor and furnishings, and sometimes provide light refreshments. A canal boat is available to shuttle visitors from garden to garden.

 

Description: World music and culture are celebrated at this eclectic event which has been staged for just over a decade and draws together not just a melting pot of musical styles, but the attending public. Around 60 concerts take place across town featuring the likes of Baaba Maal, Oumo Sangare and the Gipsy Kings, complemented by parties. Highlight is the fantastic free-entry 'Roots Open Air' day in the Oosterpark which attracts almost 60,000 folk annually.