Noodweer at Pinkpop 2014. (Image by Jan Willem van Wessel at flickr.com)
One of the biggest events of the country is held during the Pinksterweekend (Pentecost weekend) in Landgraaf, Limburg, every year since 1970. In fact, it is the longest running annual pop festival in the world! People from all over the world convene, to have a wonderful weekend of people, music and fun. Many different artists perform, and the genre is, as the name might suggest, mostly Pop. What festival is this?
Pinkpop. And this is Mick Jagger during this year’s edition trying to speak Dutch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYb9Us4uAHw
This year the festival had some major artists like Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, and The Rolling Stones. It is spread over three days, and attracts around 68.000 people every day. The origin of its name is also interesting. Pink does not designate a color in Dutch. Pink is roze. So the association with the color is not there in Dutch. However, as also the Netherlands is anglicizing, everybody knows pink is also about a color. The name Pinkpop comes from “Pop met Pinksteren” (Pop during Pentecoste). So in English, this would probably be Pentepop. Interesting…
Anyway, the event had to undergo quite a shock on Monday, June 9, when the storm from the south came over. A lot of wind, lightnings, very dark clouds… It was noodweer (emergency weather), and the KNMI (Koninklijke Nederlandse Meteorologisch Instituut – Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute) even called out code rood (code red), which refers to a very bad situation… Indeed, it did not look good, but as the seriousness of the storm became clear, it was too late too evacuate almost 70.000 music fans. So they stayed – and got lucky. The worst part of the storm passed over Noord-Brabant. To alleviate the shock, the festival visitors could enjoy Metallica that played right after the storm had passed.
Despite that, the festival was a huge success again. It was sold out, as it was in most of the previous editions. Great artists, atmosphere, and – most of it – great weather. What do you want more?
What do you do during Pentecoste?
If you want to see more, the full report of the event can be found here:
http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1422600
And this is the official website of the festival:
http://www.pinkpop.nl/2014/
