Festivals until you fall down

If I get that question, I get a bit rebellious. Why ‘too old’ to go to a festival? I sometimes see them, the raised eyebrows and the unspoken question on the wrinkle -free foreheads of the Geners: what does that old person do here? But hello: these were always our parties. We were here first!

Although … the first well -known music festivals apparently date from 582 BC in Greece: the Pythian Games. An eight-day sports and culture festival; Yes, those Greeks were not that crazy. They knew early on what you had to do to make life more fun! After that, however, it took until after the Second World War before large public music events got off the ground.

Bob Dylan

Music genres such as jazz, blues, country, folk and doll were, mainly due to radio stations, discovered by new generations. The first Newport Folk Festival (1959), where Bob Dylan later made his debut, attracted no fewer than 11,000 visitors. With the limited means of transport, that was really a lot at the time. Groots and legendary later also became the Monterey International Pop Music Festival (1967) in California with then 90,000 visitors! It meant the breakthrough for, for example, The Whois Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and The Mama’s & The Dads. After Woodstock (1969) and Glastonbury (1970), the Netherlands also followed with Pinkpop in 1970, so that is really our very oldest festival.

Tents and air beds

My very first multi-day festival experience was in 1986: the famous Belgian festival Torhout/Werchter. With friends we stuffed in my red Renault 4 with tents and air beds and sang along with poorly absorbed cassette tapes. Talk Talk, UB40, The Simple Minds, U2, Simply Red, The Waterboys and Elvis Costello. They blew us away with their then young Bravoure and we were there!

I thought it was magical: immersing yourself in such a bubble of greedy music feet. Enjoy eating, drinking, dancing and laughing together. The next morning, between fellow brothers and sisters and Doorrrr… oh, it was hard to do with piercing that fine bubble and getting back into the daily reasons. Once you have experienced how wonderful that is, such a festival fire, like an Olympic flame, will stay on forever.

Goosebumps

Enthusiast Frank (53) also recognizes himself in the bubble feeling. “For me, that fire was fueled a little later, but when I have my current love and that hard Festival goer Martha (51) came across, she completely dragged me into it. Since 2012 we are going to finish many festivals together. Every time I come up such a festival site, I just get goosebumps. Everything slips away from me; I feel as free again as a child in the playground. And that really doesn’t get any less now that I have passed the 50. ”

Festival Down the Rabbit Hole was a favorite for years, but that love has cooled a bit. “I want to go there again, because the programming is always great, but the last time I thought it was way too busy. Those rows everywhere, I can handle that a bit less well. Just like you, I think, because we met there. Something with hours of traffic jams and no place for your tent …”

Avoid large festivals

I remember that indeed. It was after Corona in 2022. Dramatic. Since then I have indeed started avoiding this kind of large festivals. “But it is also nice to discover new or other types of festivals. Dauwpop is our discovery last year, for example. A very varied selection in terms of music and a wonderful atmosphere. This year we are also going to passion in Drente for the first time in Drente, but the greatest place in my festival heart is for land jewel in Ruigoord, lectures, lectures there, lectures, lectures there, lectures, lectures, lectures there, and there is a lot of vision of the same artificial. Special.

Second youth experience

Colleague Sabine (56) is also not afraid of a festival. It is a kind of second youth experience for her. “Yes, it is pure nostalgia, something from the past. Then I also went, but I parked it for a while when children came. Now it is possible again and I am going to party with friends. I also enjoy it immensely again, sometimes with a pill. I did that on my 19^one Also. You are looser and the music comes in better, more intense. You feel it going through your whole body. “

“The dancing and the conversations are also more fun. I will go to other things like you; to Techno and Dance festivals such as 909 in the Amsterdamse Bos, or Sieraad and Loveland. It is funny that I was recently approached by a 25-year-old who said: ‘Oh how nice that you are here too’, referring to our age difference. We were already a lot here. good-old Hippies atmosphere, like you, is a must: Lalaland in Ruigoord, this year for the third time. It is a mix of Bollywood and Hippie, but there is also classic sitar music, a market, yoga class … very cool. ”

Discotheque is an extinct phenomenon

“Where else can you dance nowadays?” Asks good friend and other festival companion Roger (61). And there he has a good point. In our hometown Haarlem is therefore sad about these days. The disco is an extinct phenomenon. A few bars with live music where you can’t turn your ass, That’s all.

“In the summer you can also go to Woodstock on Bloemendaalse beach, but otherwise … That’s why I like to go to festivals such as Veerplas, Loveland, Wooferland or Landjuweel,” he says. “With friends or my girlfriend, but just as sweet alone. You don’t have to take anyone into account. I always come across acquaintances, but I often also have very nice contacts with strangers. Perhaps through a pill here and there. Sometimes I make a haiku (three -yellow japanese verse) after a nice conversation and I will give it another layer of people with people.”

Boxing and respect

Weird looks of the young guard around him, he almost never gets. “No, dude, just a boxing and respect,” my parents would never do this, “they often say. Our generation is of course also different in that. My 66 sister and brother -in -law still go to festivals.”

In short: going to festivals is clearly not a whim of a single 50s who want to remain cramped hip. It is in our DNA, a need for lucky fabrics that can only be satisfied in one way. We are still young in spirit and as long as we can dance, sing or join us with our favorite music, we will continue to do so for a very long time.

House-opa

My great example is the still living legend house-opa Johan de Vries. I have already met him at a lot of festivals. The best man is now 92, Techno is his favorite dance music and Awakenings his favorite festival. But in the summer he is invited to every festival as a Special Guest and the Vrouwkes stand in line to take a picture with him. Pills, he doesn’t do that: “I don’t want to know what it is,” he says. He doesn’t need it either. He himself is an eternally vibrant endorphine factory. How beautiful is that?

Brain professor Eric Scherder has often said it, for example on Lowlands: music and dancing keep your young and happy and not only your hips flexible, including your brain. The renowned The New England Journal of Medicine confirms that dancing is good for your memory and can even help to prevent dementia at a later age.

Good for your heart

So if you dance you indeed make, like our house-opa, endorphine that gives you a feeling of happiness. People who were depressed became demonstrably happier after a dance. At the same time you train your coordination and balance. And it’s good for your heart, lungs and blood pressure. My husband even conquered my heart by doing a dance for me, so it’s also good for love. Finally, elderly people who regularly dance regularly suffer from bone loss. Need I Say More? I call on all 50+ people: stay especially festivals as long as you like it and dance until you drop.