Pinkpop Festival

infobox music festival
music_festival_name = Pinkpop


location = Landgraaf, Netherlands
years_active= 1970 - present
dates = Pentecost weekend
genre = Rock
website = [http://www.pinkpop.nl http://www.pinkpop.nl]

Pinkpop Festival, or Pinkpop for short, is an annual rock festival held at Landgraaf, Netherlands. According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is the oldest annual festival in the world. It is held annually on the Pentecost weekend ("Pinksteren" in Dutch, hence the name). In 1970, the first festival took place in Geleen, now part of municipality Sittard-Geleen and was held on the Monday following that weekend.

Today, Pinkpop is a 3 day festival, from Saturday to Monday, and visited by approximately 60,000 people a day with performances on 3 separate stages. In 35 years, 1.5 million people have attended Pinkpop. More than 500 musical acts have played at the festival.

In 1994 (the 25th edition), it was decided to sell only 60,000 tickets, to prevent overcrowding due to the popularity of the festival. In 1995, it was made into a 2-day festival. Two years later, in 1997, this was further expanded to three days.

2007 saw a spin-off, later in the year, on 11 August, called Pinkpop Classic, for an older rock audience, with bands that previously performed on Pinkpop.In 2008 Pinkpop will, for the first time in its history, not be held in the Pentecost weekend which falls early this year.

Name and logo

The name is half Dutch, half English, in two possible combinations. Originally, 'pink' comes from the Dutch word for pentecost, 'pinksteren' and 'pop' comes from pop music (or 'popular music'). But another interpretation is a combination of the English word pink and the Dutch word 'pop', which means doll, which is the origin for the logo, a doll in a pink dress.

The precursor to Pinkpop, which was held in 1969, was called Pinknick because people were supposed to bring their own food.

Pinkpop 2008

Pinkpop 2008 was held in the Landgraaf Megaland Park on May 30 May 31 and June 1, 2008. On December 10 and 17th there were 3 bands officially announced to headline on each of the three festival days. These headlining bands are the internationally renowned Foo Fighters, Metallica, and the recently reformed Rage Against the Machine. Pinkpop 2008 was the biggest Pinkpop to date, with an average of just over 60,000 people attending each of the three days, prompting the festival organizers to announce that 180,000 people had visited the festival. Because the 42,500 available three-day passes sold out completely, the actual number of unique visitors is 94,000.

In February 2008, Alanis Morissette announced on her website that she will play on Pinkpop, on 1 June. Furthermore, on 2 March Stereophonics announced that they will play on PinkPop 2008 as well, at the end of their concert in the HMH in Amsterdam.

Pinkpop 2009

Pinkpop 2009 is set to take place on Saturday 30th of May, Sunday 31st of May and Monday 1st of June [http://www.pinkpop.nl/page.php?pagID=419&newID=211 (Dutch)]

Bands that have performed at Pinkpop

References

External links

* [http://www.pinkpop.nl/page.php?pagID=445 Official site] (English)
* Myspace page for Pinkpop [http://www.myspace.com/pinkpopfestival - myspace site (Dutch)]
* [http://3voor12.vpro.nl/3voor12/festivals/index/index.jsp?portal=2534202&event=34355979 3Voor12 Articles, Audio, Video and more about Pinkpop 2007]