Amsterdam (AFP) - Tall ships from around the world paraded up the North Sea Canal into Amsterdam on Wednesday, with crews from Peru, Uruguay, Germany and France waving from their decks as crowds cheered along the banks.

The spectacle launched Amsterdam’s five-day maritime festival, a celebration of ships, sailors and the city’s seafaring past that is expected to draw between 2.3 and 2.5 million visitors.

The Sail-in Parade is the most challenging moment of the festival, harbour master Milembe Mateyo told AFP.

“There’s a lot of press, there are an extreme amount of boats who want to see it, a lot of people in high places who want to be there, so that is the most (challenging),” she said.

“Once that is safely over, I can finally sleep and enjoy the rest of the festival.”

The Sail Amsterdam festival – now in its 10th edition – is part of the city’s 750th anniversary celebrations.

This year, it will feature around 50 tall ships and 700 historic vessels.

Sail Amsterdam chairman Arie Jan de Waard said this year’s theme for the event was “United by Waves”, chosen in response to global tensions.

“It’s important that we connect through the water and through the cultures on the ships and the crews who gather here in Amsterdam,” he told AFP.

“I think that’s very, very important.”

- Thousands of spectators -

The parade began in IJmuiden on the North Sea coast, where the first ships passed through the giant sea locks shortly after 10:00 am before making the 25-kilometre (15.5-mile) journey inland.

The flotilla, stretching around 10 kilometres, included naval training vessels, steamships, sailing heritage craft and a swarm of recreational boats that joined the procession.

Thousands of spectators lined the canal from the locks to the IJ harbour behind Amsterdam’s Central Station, where the tall ships were greeted with cannon salutes and music.

Families perched on camper vans, schoolchildren leaned over barriers and pensioners waved flags as crews shouted greetings from the rigging.

Siep de Haan, 60, said he had become “addicted” to Sail Amsterdam after seeing his first edition a decade ago.

“We love boat parades,” he told AFP.

“We invented the pride boat parade here in Amsterdam 30 years ago and 10 years ago I saw here my first sail and now I’m addicted to the whole thing.”

Another member of the crowd, Daniel Top, said he had been coming to Sail Amsterdam since childhood.

“It’s always a fun family event for us,” the 28-year-old said.

“Maybe we’ll go out on the water later in the week with a little boat to see the ships from the water.”

The event was first organised in 1975 to celebrate Amsterdam’s 700th birthday. It has been held every five years since then, except for in 2020, when it was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That makes this year’s event the first in a decade.

Over the coming days visitors will be able to board the tall ships, watch a parade of hundreds of international crew members through the city centre and attend concerts and receptions along the waterfront.

On Sunday, the vessels will sail out to sea in a second grand parade.

Among the lighter traditions is the piramide, where locals float home-made rafts cobbled together from surfboards, chairs or anything else that drifts.

Few make it to the finish, but the point is spectacle rather than seamanship.