Running report guerilla action Vondelpark by Marek Mussel
A little after 11 in the morning, on a beautiful Amsterdam spring day, I spot three young men standing in front of an Albert Heijn near the Vondelpark. These must be the guys I’m looking for. The ones who are going to clean the park, make pancakes, and invite people to grab a grabber and a garbage bag to join in the Vondelpark clean-up.
Hidekazu is today’s leader of the pack. Born in Fukuoka, Japan, and living in Amsterdam for four years now, he’s between accounting jobs and calls himself a workaholic. “I can work ten hours a day, every day and today, I’m doing this event.” He made pancakes for Serve the City once before, about three months ago, for people experiencing homelessness. When I ask if he remembers the recipe, it doesn’t seem to ring a bell.
No worries: pancake enthusiast Victor is here, plus we have a shopping list. Together with Anestis, a Greek exchange student, we head into the supermarket. Victor’s main reason for volunteering is to make pancakes—he’s even thinking about starting his own pancake business. Originally from Macedonia, he worked in finance there and is now looking for new challenges in Amsterdam. When I ask what he loves most about pancakes, he says: “Definitely the flipping moment.”
Soon, our cart is full of eggs, flour, oat milk, powdered sugar, bananas, and strawberries. While shopping, two latecomers join us: Max and Saida. Max has done park clean-ups before and will prove focused again today. Anestis wants to clean hygienically and looks for gloves, but we can’t find any at this Albert Heijn.
Luckily, Jesse has three and a half pairs in his bakfiets. He’s waiting for us outside, chilling in the sun, seated in the container. His electric cargo bike, branded with his company Tiny Buurthouse, is an all-purpose event-mobile. He brought gas burners, pans, and utensils, and rides the bakfiets to the park entrance while we follow on foot. On the way, Hidekazu and I chat about Japanese word intonation and the long “ooooo” sound. I can’t help bringing up okonomiyaki, the tasty Japanese pancake.
Serve the City has done many park clean-ups, but never like this pancakes included. While Jesse sets up the bakfiets and Victor starts mixing batter, kids start gathering around.
Max and Saida head off with grabbers and garbage bags from the bakfiets and disappear into the park. Anestis grabs a grabber too and follows them.
Soon we’re joined by Clarissa, born in Sicily. She came to take pictures, but later jumps in to help with pancakes.
Being the first edition, we quickly realize a few things are missing. A list forms: next time, we need a banner explaining who we are. Still, curious parkgoers come by, drawn by the smell (or the scene). Most smile and walk on when invited to help. Pancakes are served with banana, syrup, and powdered sugar. The weather is perfect and the vibes are good.
By 2:15, we’re done. Loads of trash collected, and plenty of pancake ingredients left for next time.
It was the first edition of the guerilla clean-up, so definitely a day to learn from. What worked, what we forgot, what to bring next time. But it was fun!
And guess what? On May 17th it’s Global Volunteering Day. We’ll be back in the Vondelpark flipping pancakes and picking up trash.
Are you joining us? 🧹🥞🌍
