Pink-pop rock music festival in the Netherlands

About Event

The date of the event is unique for each year. In 2021, the date is June 18.

The Pinkpop Festival, or Pinkpop for short, is an annual rock music festival held in Landgraaf, a city located in the southeast of the Netherlands. It traces its history since 1970.

Originally the festival was held on Pentecost weekend, but since 2013 the date of the event is not oriented to the church holiday. The festival takes place in the first half of June.

The name Pinkpop – half Dutch, half English – has two possible interpretations. Originally, the part of the word pink is an abbreviation of the Dutch name of Pentecost (Pinksteren), and pop is part of the word pop music (popular music). But later on the name Pinkpop was interpreted as a combination of the English word pink and the Dutch word pop (doll), which became the basis of the logo of the festival – a doll in a pink dress.

So, now Pinkpop is held during three days, unfolding performances on three different platforms and accepting more than 60 thousand people a day. And for almost half a century history the festival was visited by more than two million people, presented their creativity more than 500 artists and bands.

In the 1990s, 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 60,000 to prevent overcrowding of the venues. In 1996 the festival was held only for two days, but in 1997 it was extended again to three days.

In 2007 Pinkpop started on August 11th under the name Pinkpop Classic. The festival was organized for the rock audience of the older generation, for whom the rock bands that had shone at the festival in the early years were playing. And in 2008 Pinkpop for the first time wasn’t held on the Pentecost weekend, which fell on the very early date of that year – the date was moved for the convenience of both performers and fans.

Over the years, world famous rock bands and performers such as The Rolling Stones, Björk, Metallica, Nazareth, U2, John Mayer, Editors, Rob Zombie and others played at Pinkpop.

Today this oldest and most famous pop festival in the Netherlands traditionally gathers a lot of music fans.