Arts and Entertainment

Review Parkpop 2009

(Mon 29 June 2009)

Despite doom and gloom from the weather forecasters in the approaching days to The Hague’s major musical event; hot sunshine and blue skies welcomed what could turn out to be a record crowd for the event. Organisers suggesting over the 250,000 bench mark.

With the sun worshippers happy and everyone else in the Party mood, Parkpop kicked off at 13.00 with Miss Montreal. I stuck to bands and performers I had heard of. Boris, the Dutch Idols winner from last year gave an excellent performance of his mix of Jazz and funk. His stage show and that of his backing group were full of energy and drive. You could see why he won Idols.

As I waited for the British punk band, The Buzzcocks I went out to find some expats in the crowd. I met a family who live in The Hague but originate from England called Martin and Cheryl Edwards and their two kids Ashley and Marcus. It was their first visit to Parkpop, they only decided at the last minute to attend as the weather was good.

Cheryl says she had never known how big the event was and was amazed that such an event isn’t even promoted in the UK, like some other European festivals. Martin told me he was blown away by the organization. Everything was run smoothly, there were no queues for anything, toilets were kept clean, he couldn’t think of a bad word to say. I asked the two kids what they thought. Great beaming smiles followed by great, fantastic, love it etc etc.

Then it was the turn of The Buzzcocks to hit the stage. It was 1977 when they first made an impact on the British charts; and from watching their performance today, they had not lost their appetite for anarchic behaviour on stage. They looked older, but mellowed? Not a chance as they ripped through their set list ending with the classic “Ever fallen in Love” The old punks in the crowd really let themselves go, pogoing like there was no tomorrow. As they left the stage to rapturous applause and screams, the bass player threw his guitar to a startled roadie and attacked the microphone stand…who said punk was dead?

I then went to see the Dana Fuchs band. Never heard of them, but the singer, well, she blew me away, what a strong and powerful voice and a great stage presence. She sang a sort of mix between country and rock ballad. The effort she put into her vocals was impressive to say the least.

My last band of the day was The Pretenders. I was looking forward to this most of all. Chrissie Hynde and the band came on stage at 18.10 and proceeded to give a full on attack to your hearing. The power was amazing. Chrissie’s voice amazed me. Great to see someone perform so well to a large crowd. She belted out a lot of the hits from the 70’s and 80’s. It was a shame that the band suffered with so many technical problems. First her monitors were not working, and then her microphone was playing up. Yet despite all the headaches she was magnificent, better than I thought she would be.

So what were my impressions on my first Parkpop experience? Well to be honest, if there is a better organized event of such scale anywhere, I would be surprised. I could not complain about anything. From what I saw, everybody went to enjoy themselves on a beautiful day. Put it this way, I never saw one sad or unhappy face as I left Zuiderpark. I overheard one couple talking as I waited for a tram. The woman was going on and on how much she loved it, and a tired, worse for alcohol male friend just nodded with a silly smile on his face. Which to me; sums it all up nicely. The day was a great success. Parkpop is truly a great experience. Roll on Parkpop 2010.