Rock music festival «Pink-pop» in the Netherlands (17/06)

Pinkpop Festival or, briefly, Pinkpop — is an annual rock music festival held in Langraaf, a city located in the south-east of the Netherlands. It traces its history back to 1970.

The festival was originally held on Pentecost weekend, but starting in 2013, the date of the event is not focused on a church holiday. The festival takes place in June.

The name Pinkpop — is half Dutch, half English – has two possible interpretations. Initially, part of the word pink — is short for the Gollad name of Pentecost (Pinksteren), and pop — part of the word pop music (popular music — popular music). But later the name Pinkpop began to be interpreted as a combination of the English word pink and the Dutch word pop (doll), which became the basis of the festival logo — dolls in a pink dress.

So, Pinkpop is currently held over three days, launching performances at 3 different venues and receiving more than 60 thousand people a day. Over its half-century history, the festival was visited by more than two million people, and more than 500 performers and groups presented their work.

In the 90s of the 20th century, Pinkpop became a very popular event in the cultural life of the country. For the 25th festival, in 1994, it was decided to limit the number of tickets sold to 60 thousand in order to prevent excessive overcrowding of the venues. In 1996, the festival was held for only two days, but in 1997 it was again extended to three days.

In 2007, Pinkpop started on August 11 under the name Classic Pinkpop Classic. The festival was organized for the older generation of rock audiences, for whom rock bands that shone at the festival in their early years played. And in 2008, Pinkpop was not held for the first time on Pentecost weekend, which fell very early that year. The — date was postponed for the convenience of both performers and fans.

Over the years, world-famous rock bands and performers have played on Pinkpop: The Rolling Stones, Björk, Metallica, Nazareth, U2, John Mayer, Editors, Rob Zombie and others.

Today, this oldest and most famous pop festival in the Netherlands traditionally attracts many music lovers.

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