King's Night in Lagos

In the Netherlands April 27th is a national holiday, its King's Day. This means that the Netherlands turns orange. There are flea markets everywhere, fun fairs and many festivals. Our King Willem Alexander will visit with his family, included his cousins and their families a city and they then walk around to see what they've organised for the royal family. They shake hands with everyone who's waiting for them in the streets, they are extremely approachable, that makes them very loved by the people. Nigeria is our 6th country outside The Netherlands where we've lived and also here in Nigeria, like in the other countries before, we celebrate King's Day. All the Dutch around the globe celebrate King's Day somehow somewhere.

My friend Dana works at the Dutch International school in Lagos. She asked me and Mathilde to help organising this year's King's Night. We said yes. So 5 weeks before the major day we came together at Dana's house. Also Dana's colleague Danitsa was joining us. Plans were made but unfortunately nothing from the previous years was on paper, so we had to begin from scratch. Dana organised the wristbands, these are the tickets to get in. Thil organised a very important item to make the party succeed, it's called bitterballs, a Dutch snack which can't be missed on a King's Night party. Danitsa organised everything that had to do with the school and food. I organised the band, sponsors and sold many tickets. We were even sold out the day before which was fantastic.Two days prior the event Thil and I went for shopping, this took almost all day. Saturday after the flea market of the Dutch children was done, the builders of the tent could start. They were on time, so that was great but it took really many hours before it was standing. The party was held in the garden of the NISL, The Netherlands International School Lagos. They have a great garden and it's located between many embassies, so noice is not a huge problem. We ordered a tent because the rain season is about to start, you just never know what to expect when it comes to the weather. Luckily the weather was great, maybe a bit too good. It was bloody hot that whole day. We were at the venue at 1 pm, try to do as many things as possible to build up a nice scene. We had a red carpet, the King and Queen without their faces for making silly photo shoots. We decorated the high tables with African fabrics. People could win a KLM flight to any destination in Europe in economy class for free. They only had to put their name in a jar, later that night Remco Boerhe the marketing Director of KLM would pick the lucky winner.

We were building up the venue with the three of us, Danitsa, Mathilde and I and we had Dennis, Mathilde's husband helping us. This was great because suddenly the barbecue was broken and needed to be fixed. It was very good to have a handy man amongst us. When we left the band still wasn't there, they were supposed to come at 3pm. Eventually they showed up at 6:15pm, didn't bring a stage as agreed, so we were a bit pissed off.

At 5pm we quickly drove home to have a bath and got dressed and rushed back again. Rob prepared a meal for me and gave it while I was still in the bath. It was all about time management.

When we arrived back at the school a few more last things needed to be done. Just before 8pm the first people already arrived. The party could start! We were sold out. Rob and Mathilde were sitting at the entrance to check wether they were wearing their wristbands or to receive money if the still needed a ticket. You'll see Rob with a lot of money in his hands, 1000 Naira is the biggest note we have, one ticket costed 8000 N.

We had a great band, the Oasis Band and Dubie our friend was there to help with the lip syncing battle and he even song with the band. At 11 pm Remco from KLM did the lucky draw. Walter a consultant has won this huge price! Aiki and Adesuwa were there with their palm wine and cocktails from coconuts with a lot of booz in it. It was so nice to have them here partying with us. The bitterballs were great! One guy was very up set and came to me at 9 o'clock "where the heck are the bitterballs",he asked. I told him they were coming but not at the beginning of the party, be patient......

We had a surprise act around midnight. Patrick aka Juergen, the Schlagersanger, sang three songs for us. We pretended he was flown in from Germany, he's Dutch by the way, we grabbed two guards from the gate to pretend they were his bodyguards. They played their role nicely as they stood by his side the whole time. Juergen asked me to start a polonaise, and so we went through the whole place, it was so much fun. Around 2am still many people were there, which is a great feeling, people having fun on a party you've organised. I think Rob and I were home around 3am, the staff of the school were staying to clean up and bring everything back to normal again. I was very grateful for this as I was exhausted. For once Rob walked Ayo in the morning. My feet were the biggest problem the day after. That Sunday we packed for Ghana!

It was an unforgettable King's Night 2019, our first one in Lagos.