Amsterdam by boat - Refugee-led city tour
A refugee-led tour through Amsterdam, told from a wooden boat that once ferried people across the Mediterranean. After the festival closes Friday, take a slow Saturday morning on the water and hear the city through the eyes of the people who arrived in it.
Saturday May 30 · 10:00–11:30 Pick-up at Mediamatic, Dijksgracht 6, 1019 BS Amsterdam. This is also the drop-off point. This google maps link provides the most accurate location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/1HwUk7ujFfqP1gk16?g_st=iw
Rederij Lampedusa is a shipping company, but it is also a meeting place, a stage, a learning space, and a collective integration programme. It is, in the founders' words, "the reversal": refugees as captains and guides, the rest of us as the passengers being shown around. The boats themselves carry that story in their hulls, two of them are original African refugee vessels that crossed the Mediterranean before being brought to Amsterdam.
Over 90 minutes on the water, the guides weave together three threads: the history of Amsterdam as a migration city, the story of how Rederij Lampedusa and its boats came to be, and their own personal stories of arriving in the Netherlands. It is a ride about belonging, resilience, and the work of making a new home.
This is a wind-down slot for KFF26 attendees still in town the morning after the festival. A different pace, a different vantage point, and a way to leave the week with the city itself looking a little different than when you arrived.
A practical note: these are open boats, and Rederij Lampedusa sails in all weather. For safety they will reschedule if a thunderstorm or storm is forecast, so dress for whatever the morning gives you.
Refugee-led storytelling on the water is its own kind of metamorphosis, the city flipped, the listener and the teller swapped, the boat reclaimed.
YOUR EXPERIENCE INCLUDES (Free)
90-minute guided boat tour through Amsterdam with Rederij Lampedusa Refugee captains and guides telling the history of Amsterdam as a migration city
The story of the boats themselves, including the original African refugee vessels
Personal stories of arriving in the Netherlands, told first-hand
A different perspective on the city to close out your KFF26 week
EXTRA
To wrap up the tour, we’d love to gather for a relaxed and optional lunch together at A Beautiful Mess (at your own expense). Location: Oosterdokskade 227, 1011 DL Amsterdam
YOUR HOSTS
City of Amsterdam, hosting on behalf of Rederij Lampedusa, the Amsterdam shipping company, meeting place, and integration programme that puts refugees at the helm.
A NOTE ON THIS EVENT This is a community-organised side event on the KFF26 Luma calendar, hosted by City of Amsterdam together with Rederij Lampedusa. It's not part of the official KFF26 programme; it's one of the gatherings the community is putting on around the festival to extend the conversation and the connections.
Capacity is intimate (~30). Reserve early, the boat fills up.