Rockstone Sessions loves it when you’re having a good time. And what would be the best moment for having a good time? Exactly: Friday night. However, it is often quite predictable. The item below gives you some pointers and directions to guide you to something different: a Friday night with a musical twist. This time in The Hague, whether you’re a local or not. If you are one, you would most likely be going to the Grote Markt around ten, stay there until the last round has been finished and then go to the Supermarkt. Even though the initial plan was to go home around one.
“It’ll be a musical and intercultural experience within 500 meters of the normal Friday night hotspots of this town”.
If you’re not, it’s still expectable you’d be absorbed in this tradition and therefore do exactly the same. So allow yourself to do something else for a change. The instructions below will guide you to a couple different bars, picked because of the specific musical preference they all have. It’ll be a musical and intercultural experience within 500 meters of the normal Friday night hotspots of this town.
Start by meeting your friends around nine at the Lutherse Burgwal in a bar called the Gekke Geit, which means the Crazy Goat. This bar is a part of a recently opened hostel and therefore you’ll be surrounded by backpackers from all over the world. With just a little bit of imagination, you’re on the road yourself. To be fair, this bar does not have one particular kind of music blasting through its speakers. However, there is a permanent piano that is supplemented by any other instruments that the current hostel guests brought with them. This means you have a very big chance of entering the Gekke Geit in the middle of an awesome jam session, especially on Friday. While enjoying this, make sure to order one of the amazing liqueurs brought to you by Van Kleeff. After the liqueur, go for a local draft beer called Lam. This refers in Dutch to either a juvenile sheep or being completely wasted. Make sure though to leave this bar before you feel like any of those meanings, because this pub crawl has just started.
Right now it is actually time to go to the Grote Markt, but only for one drink. A cocktail to be exact, since the next stop is a cocktail bar called Vavoom. If you’re a local, you might have some difficulties crossing this square quickly. This is because you’ll probably run into some of your friends who are enjoying their usual Friday night.
The music will make you feel like you’re back in the fifties.
Say hi to them, but make sure they don’t interrupt the tour. Just agree to meet them in about two and a half hours, when the last round has been served. Vavoom is situated on the corner and decorated as a Hawaiian beach bar. Despite this, the music will make you feel like you’re back in the fifties. It’s a mixture of surf rock, rock-a-go-go and rockabilly. Either sit back, relax and enjoy your Mojito, or put your drink down for a while and dance around. It’s all good. But after finishing the cocktail, it is time to move on and listen to some bleus music.
The be
st place todo this during the pub crawl is in a tiny, but very friendly bar called ‘T Hoekpandje, located in the Oude Molstraat. It might not necessarily be the most charming and attractive café in this street. But when you’ve found your way through all the dart lanes and slot machines, it’s time to sit at the bar, have a beer and listen to the music. When you’re lucky, you won’t even find the way to the bar. This is because there might be a bleus band playing. If not, don’t be disappointed, because the next stop will definitely have some live music.
To get there, walk to the end of the street and go right into the Molenstraat. On your left hand you’ll find the Kikker, completely packed with Jazz lovers and musicians. According to the timetable you should arrive around eleven. This means that there might still be a Jazz gig going on. If not, there will be a jam session, which is definitely just as much fun. Besides that, you’ll notice again that there are not a lot of Dutch people. Most of the crowd consists of international students of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. This stop will probably be the musical high light of the tour, so allow yourself to have three drinks. Take your time and enjoy the atmosphere, as well as the international environment and of course the live jazz music.
Get yourself some beers and enjoy the songs of André Hazes and Johnny Jordaan.
Right about now, you might start to feel a little bit tipsy, after approximately seven consumptions. This is definitely not a problem though, because your next stop will be a bar called the Happy End. To get there, walk to the end of the Molenstraat and go to the right into the Prinsestraat. Keep walking for a bit and you’ll find it on your left hand. In here the ambience isn’t that international, and so isn’t the music. All the records you’ll hear will be in Dutch.The so-called levensliederen, sentimental songs about life, are catchy and most of the crowd will sing along. Get yourself some beers and enjoy the songs of André Hazes and Johnny Jordaan. Hopefully the Happy End has truly been a happy end of this pub crawl. Because after this one, it is time to go back to a normal Friday night in The Hague.
If you stuck to the schedule, you and your pub crawl buddies had about nine drinks, while the rest of this town is just having their last round at the Grote Markt. It’s more or less a five-minute walk to meet them and you’re still on time to enter the Supermarkt altogether. Hopefully you’re night has been a little less predictable and a little more musically focused than normal. You won’t forget it for a long time,or you might not recall it all. Either way, it has been something different.
