Amsterdam Street Party

Street Parties have gone international! On 8th February Amsterdam held there first ‘Reclaim The Streets style’ street party. Around fifty people came over from the UK (wish it was as easy to get people for actions in Britain) and thanks to friendly Amsterdam squatters they all had free accommodation for the weekend.

While people gathered at two train stations, ‘Plan A’ was busted by the police as vans containing tripods, sound systems, banners and lock-ons were confiscated by the police. This meant that the favoured location for the party - on the motorway outside the Amsterdam Motor Show, was no longer possible. Plan B then came into effect, and a road into Amsterdam was blocked by a smaller sound system and around 400 party goers, mainly from the city but also a large number from all over Europe.

For a couple of hours there was minimal police presence. Apparently police had thought that it was all over when the vans had been confiscated and so were caught off guard.

As a fire was lit in the middle of the street they decided to move in and the party turned into a march into the city centre. Intersections full of cars were blocked while trams received special treatment as the crowds opened up and let them through with lots of applause. The march ended as lines of riot police got batons out and attacked anyone attempting to go down the final stretch of road into the centre. So instead people turned into a market square and had a huge bonfire, with free food, music and dancing before heading off late in the evening to squat parties elsewhere.