The 30-year-old music teacher and assistant programmer at the Melkweg saw a total of 603 performances last year. According to Sydney, 262 performances count towards his record attempt, because these would be separate concerts. “So not multiple artists at a festival or support acts, no, those were really stand-alone concerts,” he explains.
The born Brabander came up with the idea of becoming a world record holder last January during a working visit to the Eurosonic Noorderslag festival in Groningen. “In three days I saw 59 acts perform. Then I thought: ‘Wow, this is really great’, I think this is a record.”
Record still stands in Australia
That just turned out not to be the case. The record is currently held by a man from Australia. He visited no less than one year 257 concerts.
“Competitive as I am, I thought let’s go, let’s go for it,” says Sydney. Since January last year, almost every genre of music has been featured in a concert he has seen. From post-punk and psychedelic rock to experimental hip hop and R&B. The assistant programmer can almost dream the performances.
