Ducos Productions, the organizers of Park Pop, a “free” pop festival that normally attracts up to 250,000 people, has decided to cancel the festival after a year of deliberations.
Ducos said over the years it has become clear that hosting large, free festivals has become financially difficult. Parkpop has been in the red for a long time, and several attempts to solve the problem, such as holding a small paid festival in front of Parkpop and relocating to Mariefelt, have failed to solve the financial problems. Also, programming and production costs have skyrocketed, and safety requirements, which are generally very costly, have increased. Add to that the post-coronavirus explosion of costs and rising energy costs, and it’s clear that a free festival at the level of Parkpop is no longer possible.
As such, the organization has introduced a hiatus in 2023 to investigate whether a transition to paid park pops from 2024 is realistic. Surveys show that the public is not outright rejecting developments in this direction, but expects Park Pop to continue to reach large audiences at very low admission prices. This is not an unreasonable request given the role Parkpop has played over the past 40 years, but as a result of this restriction Parkpop cannot programmatically differentiate itself enough to secure a position in the country, and financial viability from this starting point remains uncertain.
For this reason, the organization has decided not to hold Parkpop in the future, stating that “celebrating Parkpop’s 40th anniversary in 2022 is a good ending to a beautiful tradition.”
https://www.thehagueonline.com/news/2023/07/23/parkpop-ends-after-40-editions Parkpop ends with 40 editions