Pinkpop festival was founded by Jan Smeets and is located in the small town of Landgraaf (Netherlands), next to the German border. The festival first took place in 1970 and in the Summer of 2019 the festival celebrated 50 uninterrupted editions, making it the oldest and longest running annual dedicated pop and rock music festival in the world.

The festival takes its name from the words “Pink” that comes from the Dutch word for Pentecost (Pinksteren) and the word “Pop”, that comes from Pop(ular) music. However, later on a creative interpretation for the name combines the English word pink and the Dutch word pop, which means doll, thus forming the origin for the logo, a doll in a pink dress.

The first Pinkpop edition had a budget of almost 10,000 guilders (€4,537.80), with a ticket price of 2.50 guilders (slightly more than 1 euro!). Today, getting a three days pass including camping costs €230. With an income only for tickets sales above €10M, and the festival often paying millions to artists (€4M for The Rolling Stones in 2014, €1.3M for Coldplay in 2011, around €1M for Justin Bieber in 2017) nowadays, the numbers are insane and gives an idea of the colossal costs and logistics involved with a major festival.

Nowadays, Pinkpop is a three-day festival, from Saturday through Monday when on Pentecost weekend, or Friday through Sunday otherwise, with a 60,000 people per day capacity and with performances on 4 separate stages. From 2006 through 2011, Pinkpop sold out six years in a row. During 44 editions, more than 2 million people have attended Pinkpop and around 700 music acts have played at the festival.