Pinkpop Festival

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Pinkpop Festival
Location(s)	Landgraaf, Netherlands
Years active	1970 - present
Date(s)	Pentecost weekend
Genre	Rock
Website	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^{[verification needed]}. 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 there in past decades.

In 2008 Pinkpop was for the first time in its history, not held on Pentecost weekend which fell too early that year for the convenience of fans and performers alike.

[edit] 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 a later creative interpretation for the name, 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. But no evidence to support the claim have ever surfaced. The claim arose only after Oregon Country Fair claimed to be the oldest annual festival in the world.

[edit] 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 reunited Rage Against the Machine. Pinkpop 2008 had the largest audience of concert attendees to date, with an average of just over 60,000 people arriving 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.

[edit] Pinkpop 2009

Pinkpop 2009

On March 4, 2009, the Pinkpop Board gave a press conference in Paradiso in Amsterdam, to answer questions from the press and announce which artists will be performing on Pinkpop 2009 will be announced.

^A  Kings of the Day are the winners of the Dutch music competition "Nu of Nooit" (Now or Never) and their performance will 'launch' the festival.

^B  Krezip replaced Depeche Mode, because lead singer Dave Gahan had to undergo a procedure after a tumor was spotted in his bladder two weeks before Pinkpop..

[edit] Bands that have performed at Pinkpop

The festival grounds after the last crowds of fans have left

Iggy Pop at Pinkpop in 1987

[edit] References

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

[edit] External links

• Official site (English)
• Myspace page for Pinkpop - myspace site (Dutch)
• 3Voor12 Articles, Audio, Video and more about Pinkpop 2007

Coordinates: 50°52′50″N 6°1′23″E / 50.88056°N 6.02306°E / 50.88056; 6.02306