Pinkpop Turns 40

Although the festival started before he gave up on his efforts to find an act to replace Depeche Mode for its Sunday night, organiser Jan Smeets said he couldn’t have been happier with Pinkpop’s 40th anniversary bash.

“There’s supposed to be a recession but people would rather take a Whitsun holiday than work for the amounts of money we were prepared to offer,” he told Pollstar, although only a handful of attendees complained about singer Dave Gahan’s medical condition forcing the British act to pull out.

Smeets’ solution was to move Placebo up to the headlining slot on the Sunday and put Krezip into Placebo’s slot. It was the fifth time the Dutch band has played Pinkpop and equaled the record previously held by Faithless, which appeared in ’97, ’98, ’99, 2002 and 2005.

Pinkpop started in ’69, the same year as Woodstock, and has carried on annually ever since, earning a listing in the Guinness Book as the world’s oldest festival.

Held over the Whitsun or Pentecost weekend (May 30 to June 1), the pink in the name comes from Pinksteren, the Dutch word for Pentecost. It’s the first major festival in the European calendar and many outdoor event promoters will look at its sales to gauge how the summer season might turn out.

Smeets says he didn’t plan any special attractions for the 40th anniversary, although the local Der Limberger thought it worth a special edition, concentrating on putting together as good a bill as he possibly could.

Apart from Bruce Springsteen, who was believed to be making his European festival debut, the lineup included The Killers, Chris Cornell, Elbow, Madness, Volbeat, Keane, Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand, The Ting Tings and Katy Perry.

“It’s one of the best bills we’ve had but, whatever the lineup over the years, I think we are lucky to have the best audience,” Smeets said.