For years I have wanted to go to Amsterdam Museumn8, or: Amsterdam Museumnight. It seems like such a cool idea: nearly 60 museums are opened the whole night, and then there are dj’s and parties within the museums. Sounds like something perfectly for the new Laura that is actually not sleeping at 11 ‘o clock on Saturday 😉

However it was not totally my thing. Before I dive into what I did not love about it, let me tell you where we went. I was with Rey and Jem and their colleagues, which was a challenge in itself because the group is too big, the opinions are too varied, and stuff. But we started at the Rijksmuseum, then we went to the Van Gogh, then via tram to Foam and last but not least: NEMO.

The first problem with this Museumn8 party is that there is too much choice. It is impossible to see everything in one night of course, but it is even a challenge to see five to ten museums. And because there is so much to do, anywhere you are you will feel hasty like you have so many other experiences to have at other places, which is very distracting.

Another thing that is distracting, is the context that is missing. You have no idea what you are looking at. Especially in Foam, which is a photography museum, you are just standing there like: what am I looking at? In general I found Foam very pretentious and hipster, I heard so many good stories about it though, so I guess I was just a bit unlucky with the exposition that is on right now.

The last problem with Museumn8 is that is is very crowded, so there are people everywhere, some of them are just there for the dj’s and the parties, some actually want to see the museum. Though it is nice that it is so crowded, it can be a bit to cramped, again, the Foam museum, it is so small for having that many people over. I do like the idea of many people enjoying this evening, but it is difficult because most things are in Dutch and there are many tourists, so that is sometimes a bit frustrating.

So I am not sure if I would go again next year, unless I would have very specific goals or a lot of money to just get a nice alcohol buzz. This time I was a bit overwhelmed by everything, and I feel a bit bad about just walking through museums so swiftly, like you are disrespecting the artists or something, I dunno. The company I was with was lovely though, I ended up with just Rey and Jem eventually, but we had a good time with the three of us. I especially liked the atmosphere of the always playful NEMO, where we saw a pretty cool chain reaction show.