Amsterdam's annual light festival sees the city's iconic waterways and open-air spaces transformed into a glittering art exhibition. One of the city's most beloved winter traditions, the festival lights up the cold, dark nights of January with magic and wonder.

On your tour you can look forward to cruising beneath bridges and past centuries-old canal houses, landmarks such as the Science Museum NEMO, the historic Plantage district and the Amstel River, where installations shimmer against sites including the grand Amstel Hotel and the famous Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge). Expect to encounter everything from playful, interactive pieces that respond to motion and touch, to breathtaking large-scale works that turn the entire canal ring into a living gallery of light.
 

Born in Matsumoto, Japan in 1929,  Yayoi Kusama began drawing as a child, driven by vivid hallucinations that became the foundation of her art. Moving to New York in 1957, she became a pioneering figure of the 1960's avant-garde, spending the following decades building a distinctive universe of polka dots, pumpkins and infinite reflections. Though often overlooked early in her career, Kusama is now celebrated for creating some of the earliest immersive, mirrored environments in contemporary art - and for her surreal fixation on polka dots and pumpkins which extended beyond her art into a distinctive personal style of bold wigs, bright patterns and dotted outfits that became as iconic as her work. 

The exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum has taken on unexpected weight as Kusama passed away in August 2026, shortly before the show opening. The curators therefore reframed the show as a posthumous tribute to her life and work.

Displayed across two floors, the exhibition spans seven decades, from early works created in Japan and rarely shown pieces never before exhibited in Europe, to works that define her global reputation. The work includes painting, sculpture, fashion, collage and her provocative public 'happenings' of the 1960's. There is also a brand-new version of Kusama's iconic installations,  where the boundary between the viewer and the work seems to disappear.

Images of Yayoi Kusama works provided by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Every year on the third Saturday of January, Amsterdam marks the start of the growing season with National Tulip Day (Nationale Tulpendag).

The centrepiece of the day is a temporary 'pick-your-own' garden organised by the Dutch flower bulb sector. The 'garden' is created overnight on Museumplein, between the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk Museum, and is 'planted' with a display of tens of thousands of colourful tulips which the public are able to 'pick'.

While you won't be able to bring tulips back with you, you will be able to walk through the displays and soak up an early taste of spring!