All About Pinkpop Festival

Landgraaf, Limburg, Netherlands

Open-air

XXL – 50k+

Rock, Pop

$$$

International

+3 Days

Pinkpop is the oldest and longest running annual live music festival in the world.

The festival has had many big names such as Pearl Jam, Fleetwood Mac, Coldplay and Justin Bieber in the music industry perform across many genres including hip-hop, electronic, heavy metal, garage rock, alternative rock and indie rock. 

Pinkpop’s 2022 edition dates are 17-19 June, 2022. Go get your Pinkpop tickets on Soundclub, the social app for live music experiences covering +2,000 festivals worldwide.

Pinkpop lineup will include +60 artists. Amongst Pinkpop headliners to look for we can find Pearl Jam, Greta Van Fleet, Deftones and Måneskin.

Here’s everything you need to know about Pinkpop.

1. Pinkpop was founded by Jan Smeets

Founded by Jan Smeets, the festival has carried on for many years being one of the most well known live music events in the Netherlands.

Having created such a successful affair, a documentary called Mr Pinkpop was created about him and his passion.

He has recently retired from the position of CEO of Pinkpop in 2020, at the age of 75. 

2. The very first Pinkpop took place in 1970

Tickets for the first Pinkpop edition, which took place almost half a century ago, cost 2.50 guilders which is equivalent to just over one dollar. 

Prices have now increased to about €230 (approx. US$255) for a three-day pass to the festival, which includes a tent for you to stay overnight.

3. Pinkpop was named after Pentecost

The festival is usually held on the Pentecost (Pinksteren in Dutch) weekend, hence the name Pinkpop. The “pop” part of the name comes from popular music, but it also means doll in Dutch, and so their logo took the form of a doll wearing pink clothing. 

In 2008, the festival strayed from Pentecost weekend for the first time due to difficulties in scheduling artists and audiences.

They changed their date to another weekend later in June and it worked out in their favor.

The festival attracted such a huge audience that the 2008 edition has been recorded to be the largest turnout to date.

4. Pinkpop appears in the Guinness World Book of Records

Pinkpop is the oldest and longest running annual dedicated pop and rock music festival in the world, according to the Guinness World Book of Records. The festival was awarded the title back in 2012 and it has held the title ever since. 

5. Pinkpop now hosts 7 times more people than when it began

One year before Pinkpop was officially founded, a festival called Pinknick was held on Pentecost Monday. 

This festival, which was held in 1969, welcomed about 10,000 visitors for the one-day event, where festival-goers brought their own food to watch local bands play. 

These in-demand local bands at the time were unpaid and actually asked to perform for free at the festival.

Coming a long way since 1970, the festival now hosts around daily 70,000 visitors and has performances spanning across four different stages. And a total of more than two million people have attended so far since its inaugural edition.

6. Many household names have shared the same stage

In 2014, The Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, John Mayer and The Kooks all shared the main stage across three days of Pinkpop.

More recently in 2019, the 50th anniversary of Pinkpop and the last time it was open to the public, the main stage had Jamiroquai, Mumford & Sons, Lenny Kravitz and Fleetwood Mac perform between the 8th to the 10th of June.

7. Pinkpop had a spinoff festival

In 2007, Pinkpop launched a spinoff called Pinkpop Classic that targeted an older rock audience.

Bands and artists that had performed at Pinkpop in the past such as Iggy Pop were brought back to relive nostalgia. 

There were a few editions of this spinoff until it was ultimately canceled in 2014.

8. In 2016, a “Bad Weather Fund” was created thanks to Pinkpop

Because of a nightmare situation in 2016, when a huge downpour of rain turned Pinkpop’s grounds into a mucky mess, the retired Dutch politician Jet Bussemaker created a “Bad Weather Fund”. The mire, however, did not stop the show from going on. 

With this fund, festivals that were potentially facing financial loss due to bad weather conditions would be eligible for a subsidy. 

To keep this scheme sustainable, festivals that have benefited from it would return the money once they are profitable again so that the funds could be used for other festivals facing the same problems. 

9. The festival is environmentally friendly

Pinkpop met the criteria for the Green and Clean award from Yourope in 2008, as it is increasingly important to care about our environment.

The festival has encouraged people to cycle to Megaland, Landgraaf and has set up a free parking area for bicycles.

The festival has also met criteria for sustainable management, transport and energy use.

10. A celestial event took place during one of the performances

During the Foo Fighters’ performance in 2018, a meteor disintegrated behind the main stage, leaving the audience in awe as it lit up the sky.

They were right in the middle of Monkey Wrench when it happened and it was luckily caught on video.

Observed from other countries such as Germany and France too, it is reported that the disintegration took place near Liège, Belgium at 11:11 p.m – a lucky sign maybe?

Now that you know just how Pinkpop has become one of the most iconic and highly anticipated festivals in Europe, try and get yourself a ticket for their next show this June – if tickets aren’t already sold out, that is.