“Oh! My! God!” someone exclaims. Suddenly we see it all: little finger does not stand on the stage but floats far away, far above. In a gigantic, open mouth at the top edge of the Pinkpop stage, she stands in a glittering bathing suit, about twenty, maybe thirty? Insanely high. And then, luckily on ropes, she suddenly crashes down, only to bounce back just above the stage while she sings ‘Get the Party Started’ and couple tumbles on rubber bands. “Oh my God,” the woman says again, full of disbelief. Well, indeed. This was just the first number.
Pink overwhelmed Friday evening as the closing act of the first day at the three-day music festival Pinkpop in Landgraaf. The American singer (actually Alecia Moore) had been looking forward to all day long, the cables above the festival grounds aroused curiosity. She immediately lived up to expectations with that opening; there were many more spectacular circus acts, such as trampolines around a large tower where dancers bounced up and down. In the colorful show, huge lips walked around or people rolled across the stage in shopping carts.
Halfway through the rather subdued ‘Turbulence’, taken from her album released in February trust fall, Pink floated in a kind of satin trapeze over the audience in an impressive choreography. She released many songs from that record, supplemented by the impressive bag full of hits she had over the past two decades. Every time you think: oh yes, she also made this one.
And then the real big stunt had yet to come, because during the challenging closing track ‘So What’ – a classic by now, from 2008 – she really flew through the air: hard and fast, and really high above the audience. And then she also twirled around wildly, like a Lego doll in the hand of the toddler who plays with it.
Fireballs
The many fireballs during Pink’s ‘Heartbreaker’ reminded us of the scorching heat of earlier that day. It is also very hot this festival weekend, and the many taps with free water, the colorful hats, clouds and every shade of shadow are very popular. It is no less busy on the first day: clouds of dust rise from the very dry terrain on which the mass moves from the North stage to the South stage.
The 52nd Pinkpop is a real pop edition. Pink concluded a finely varied festival day, where both the die-hard poppy sing-alongs and the rockers had little to complain about with shows that you can talk about.
The popular Niall Horan the festival field was pretty full. While the sun was at its highest, the Irishman, who became famous in boy band One Direction, only had to lift a corner of his mouth for a big response (screams). His songs were sung carelessly far on the field, such as ‘If You Leave Me’ and ‘Meltdown’ from his new solo album The Show (this week at number one in the hit list in our country), and certainly One Direction’s ‘Story of my Life’, with Horan on acoustic guitar. “This is my first festival in Europe, it doesn’t get any better!”
Throat singing
Indie rock fell on the traditionally guitar-loving Pinkpop The War on Drugs Friday very good during the setting sun as well as the always solid Editors. And the fresh one too Nova Twins was strong with their rap-rock-dance amalgam. Also special was the folk metal of the Mongolian band The Hu, which combine traditional throat singing and instrumentation with metal. Just a little too little variation to keep it interesting for an entire performance, but a very nice act to watch.
was less uplifting Electric Callboy, a crazy German band that thinks they should mix heavy metalcore with party tent music. Some of their choruses are so catchy that it can make you angry if they still pop up in your head hours later (don’t think of ‘Hypa Hypa’ now), like an over the top Eurovision act.
It was more pleasant The Haunted Youth, the sympathetic young band from Belgian Limburg that the tent stage was not enough for the audience that came to it – if only to stay out of the sun. At times it was sometimes just a little too hushed to rise above the audience, but the dreamy, somewhat dark indie pop eventually found its way and fans must have won over.
photos Andreas Terlaak.