The party was up a long wooden staircase, the only marked exit in the building, which wound up a good 18 or so feet to the first floor of the pre-war style high ceilinged building. The landing of the staircase was the cloak room, which on a Dutch December night was jammed past capacity with heavy woolen and synthetic coats, hampering easy access and egress. Apparently in Holland, as elsewhere in Europe, fireworks are an integral part of new year s eve celebrations. But nothing in the American experience of this reporter prepared him for the way they are used in the streets of Amsterdam. For hours before midnight, youngsters light and throw pyrotechnics which appear to be heavier and louder than firecrackers seen elsewhere.
Rockets light up the sky.
At midnight all hell breaks loose. People setting off hand-held rockets vie with the more generous celebrants who bring entire crates of pyrotechnics which can be lit with a single fuse. Hundreds of small and large rockets stream out of little compartments in the crates and shoot generally speaking, up, but not straight up and the boxes themselves are placed wherever the owner cares. The result is magnified brilliance, and complete disorder. The revelers in the club are all handed sparklers and they wave them around the dance floor, and then head out to the balcony to watch the fireworks shoot up.