The Netherlands celebrates Liberation Day on Monday, marking 69 years since Germany surrendered at the end of World War II.

The celebrations started in Wageningen around midnight where the Liberation flame was lit and torches then taken by runners to other fires all over the country.

Germany signed the capitulation documents in Wageningen on May 5, 1945. The south of the country had been liberated months earlier.

Zwolle

The focus of this year’s event is on Drenthe. Prime minister Mark Rutte lit the freedom flame in Zwolle at 13.00, kicking off the Liberation Day festivals.

Fourteen formal Liberation Day festivals are being staged all over the country: in Zwolle, Leeuwarden, Groningen, Assen, Almere, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Wageningen, The Hague, Roermond and Vlissingen.

Dutch band Kensington and solo performers Douwe Bob and Gers Pardoel are making a whistle stop tour of the 14 festivals by helicopter.

The celebrations end with the traditional May 5 concert on the Amstel river in Amsterdam, which is broadcast live on television and will be attended by king Willem-Alexander and queen Máxima.

Bevrijdingsdag is only an official day off work for most workers once every five years and this will next happen in 2015.