Events
Werfpop
(http://www.werfpop.nl/) in dutch a small scale music festival with performances ranging from metal to dance. in 2009 infadels, voicst, napalm death, dio and the dead letters played. july.
Leiden International Film Festival
(http://www.leidsfilmfesti...) a small yearly film festival in october encompassing mainstream and smaller art-house films shown at a variety of museums and cinemas throughout town. it gets some dutch premieres.
Leidsche bluesweek
A yearly festival with performances by mainly but not exclusively dutch performers. the wednesday night pub-crawl is a blast with many bars hosting live music for other venues you do have to buy tickets though they're not expensive.
Leidsche lakenfeesten
(http://www.lakenfeesten.nl/) in dutch a week of different activities in the city center and on the canals. there's a culinary festival, and the museum night. june.
There are two wonderful ways to stroll the old centre of Leiden. One way is to print out a paper guide that will guide you along the poems on the wall, the Muurgedichten. In 1992, the painting project was started and it was recently finished. More than 80 poems from all over the world are painted on the walls of houses. The tour will show you about 25 poems, the whole tour taking about two hours. The guide is downloadable at (http://www.muurgedichten....).
The other way is to take a tour along the courtyards that are often hidden behind the facades of houses. The Hofjeswandeling will start at the Burcht in the city centre all year round on Sundays at two, and from March until October on Tuesdays and Thursdays at two. The costs of the tour are â¬2.25 for adults and children -12 years for free. No need to buy tickets, just be present at the starting time. The tour will take about two hours.
A boat trip through the canals is also a wonderful thing to do. There are many canals, and they lead you by the most beautiful streets of the city centre. You can buy tickets for the canal cruises at the Beestenmarkt, just two minutes from the Central Station. There you can also go aboard.