Another three weeks and then the festival season will start with Paaspop in Schijndel. The three -day festival increases every year. Whether the number of visitors is increasing or the number of stages is being expanded: the festival is a mega operation for companies in and around the village. For example, the builders of CoreWorks from Den Bosch assemble 26,000 scaffolding pipes in six weeks and they print 20,000 square meters of decoration for the festival in Sint-Oedenrode in Sint-Oedenrode. “Paaspop feels like coming home.”
It is an organized chaos on the sun -drenched Paaspopterrein in Schijndel. A number of constructions and stages have already been built up and provided with cloths and decoration. Other constructions are still in the scaffolding and are decorated with forklifts, cloths and decoration.
Hard workers walk on and off the site, just like Iroquoi, performing project manager at CoreWorks in Den Bosch. Iroquoi has been running the structure of the festival in the right direction for years and together my colleagues is building the biggest constructions.
“We work here for six weeks on the structure, every day with a team of twenty people including the forklift drivers,” he says. “We have been working for three weeks, but are not nearly halfway.”
A lot of material is needed for a festival of this size. “We build all outdoor objects, the facades, the stands and the stages. We need about 26,000 scaffolding pipes for that. In the six weeks of construction, around eighty trucks drive up and down to get all the material onto the site,” says Iroquoi.
“Paaspop is the biggest festival for which we do the structure. The yard in Den Bosch where the material is located is completely empty in the Easter weekend.”
“Three football fields in printing.”
With eVVe advertising productions in Sint-Oedenrode, the printers, cutting machines and other machines have also been roaring day and night for Paaspop for weeks. “We make 20,000 square meters of printed matter for the festival. Those are the football fields of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord together,” says Nick van Wanrooij, festival manager at the company.
“We make pretty much all the decoration that you see in Paaspop. Those are the banners, plates, flags and stickers. We will start with that in January. Mid April it seems far away, but it is closer than you think with such a large production,” says Nick.
The designers and set builders of Paaspop deliver the printed matter. The Machines from TVE can then print automated, but it also remains manual work.
“The machines must be operated and the banners are finished. A banner or plate has sometimes been through eight or nine hands. In total we work hard with a team of thirty -five people on the preparations for the festival.”
The festival, which once started in a manage tray on the edge of the Paaspop site, is a special festival for Nick and Iroquoi. “Always when I walk around, I look my eyes out. Every year it is possible to make it even more beautiful,” says Nick.
“Most beautiful party and production that I experience.”
“Paaspop is coming home for me. I think it’s one of the most beautiful parties and productions that I experience,” says Iroquoi. “As a 17 year old boy, I came here for the first time, when it looked very different. In the meantime I am almost thirty and I have been walking around here for many years.”
Yet it is a challenge for Iroquoi and his team to build larger constructions every year. “In terms of site, the festival is really at its maximum, but this year we have new constructions again.”
And as a crown on their work, Iroquoi and his colleagues will enjoy the festival after the structure. “If the last tubes are in the construction, we will make it a nice party. But after three days we will just break down again,” he laughs.
Tell us your Paaspop story!
Omroep Brabant is there for three days at Paaspop 2025. Do you have a fun, funny, sad or remarkable story about Paaspop? Or are you planning something special at the festival? For example, do you put a good friend in the spotlight, do you have something to celebrate or do you think of someone who can’t be there? Let us go through [email protected] know!