Late April and early May are synonymous with public holidays and open air concerts across the Netherlands. In Groningen, Dutch pop star Nielson will be the headliner during the King’s Day concert at the Vismarkt, and the Liberation Day Festival is doing away with plastic tokens.
Translation by Traci White
The Groninger Internet Courant reports that Nielson, whose best known song is “Sexy als ik dans”, will take the stage at the Vismarkt on King’s Day from 7 to 8 p.m. The performance will be the headliner for a full day of musical acts in the city centre, starting at 10 a.m. on 27 April.
Other scheduled acts include the Stones Sessions, a Rolling Stones cover band, and Croatian rock group Luminize, which broke into the Dutch scene on The Voice of Holland. The Nile Rodgers Project and Haas will also take the stage during the afternoon. The full programme for the city with an overview of activities by neighbourhood is available at the Algemeen Oranjevereniging site.
No more plastic tokens
In other festival news, the Liberation Day concert in the Stadspark is going cash free and will no longer have visitors pay for plastic concessions tokens. Visitors who want to buy food and drinks on the festival grounds will have to pay with a card, which is expected to shorten waiting times.
However, visitors who only have cash on them will not be out of luck: they can pick up a card specifically for the event, upload it with cash and use it at the concessions stands. The event organisers say that the move will also be more environmentally friendly by saving up to one cubic meter of plastic. Acts at the Groningen Liberation Day festival include Dutch rapper Kraantje Pappie and English-Spanish band Crystal Fighters: one of their biggest hits in the Netherlands is their 2011 single, “Plage”.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said that “Plage” by Crystal Fighters came out in 2012. It was released in 2011.
