Everyone will receive their Embassy Festival Surprise and Wine Box!

We’re completely overwhelmed by all the support we’ve received regarding the surprise/wine boxes and recipe booklets. We’ve never done anything like this and couldn’t believe how many people ordered something from us. We wanted to give our community a sense of the International Market they would normally walk along and offer an opportunity to keep on discovering flavours from all over the world. At the moment, we’re working tirelessly to pack them all up and get them ready for shipping or pick up and we couldn’t be more grateful. But most of all, we’re incredibly curious to find out what you think! So please, please share your unboxing videos and photos with us by using #embassyfestival and by tagging us on Instagram and Facebook. Let’s celebrate the Embassy Festival together!

All of the exclusive content we’ve put together for you will go online!

You might want to sit down for this one. Because this weekend, with the online Embassy Festival you can (amongst other things): Learn Polish, Korean, learn about Georgian wine, how to make Origami, learn Taiji, watch amazing music, learn how to cook dishes from all over the world and we’ll even (you’re reading this right) show you how to make Hanji Rubber Shoes. If this isn’t a diverse and cultural way to spend your weekend, we don’t know what is! More than 50 videos will be published from Friday 4 September at 5pm and we’re so excited for you to see everything. In the past few weeks we’ve already shared a few of them, including Irish Dancing at the Hofvijver, an exclusive performance from Lachy Doley all the way from Australia, a cooking tutorial showing you how to make Palestinian Makloubeh and more. This weekend, get ready for some binge watching, cooking, dancing and singing. We’ve got some blasts from the past in our ‘Memory Lane’ section, which includes brand-new and exclusive videos from artists that have played at the festival before. We’ve already mentioned Lachy Doley, but it doesn’t stop there. Con Brio, Paul Beaubrun and Oslo Fat String Quartet have also joined in and created videos for you. Then there’s all the cooking videos for you to dive in (some of those will be a great match with your Recipe Booklet) Want to get creative? We’ve got lots of that too! In fact, there’s more than we can mention in just a short summary, so head on over to our programme page and set your alarm for Friday at 5pm!

Read exclusive interviews with ambassadors

In the past few weeks we had the delightful opportunity to speak to ambassadors from all over the world and they’ve told us so many interesting stories, fun facts and insights about their heritage, culture, traditions and their experiences in the Netherlands. Did you know that there’s an underground wine cellar-heaven in Moldova with a Chardonnay street and Pinot street, for example? Or did you know that there are more saunas than cars in Finland? We also loved hearing their views and insights about living in the Netherlands. “I was positively surprised to see that the Dutch people cycle even when it’s raining and snowing hard, sometimes with children in the front and back!”, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan said.

You can read the interviews with the ambassadors of Palestina, Republic of Chile, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Republic of Moldova, Costa Rica and Finland by clicking on the country. There will also be a video interview published this weekend, with the Ambassador of Rwanda!

Taste the world with the Recipe Booklet

We really hope that a lot of people will recreate one of the many dishes published in our Recipe Booklet this weekend, and taste flavours they never thought possible. Surprise your family, friends and yourself by making a dish you hadn’t heard of or tried before. A few examples, you ask? Pupusas from El Salvador, Samaki Choma from Tanzania, Irish Stew and Sernik from Poland are all featured. And the rest? If you haven’t already, you can still order your Recipe Booklet here. Please share any dishes you’ll be making by using #embassyfestival!