The Pinkpop Festival is an annual music festival held in Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is usually held on the Pentecost weekend (Pinksteren in Dutch, hence the name). If Pentecost falls on an early date in May, the festival is held later in June. Starting in 1970, at Burgemeester Damen Sportpark in the city of Geleen, Pinkpop is the oldest and longest-running annual dedicated pop and rock music festival in the world.

The precursor to Pinkpop was held on Pentecost Monday in 1969. It was completely free and called Pinknick because people were supposed to bring their own food. Only a free pig roast and free apples were provided by the organizers. Inspired by the Monterey festival from 1967, a number of hip local bands were persuaded to come and play unpaid. Almost 10,000 visitors were attracted, ranging from pop music lovers to grandparents and their grandchildren. 

The name consists of two parts. ‘Pink’ comes from the Dutch word for Pentecost (Pinksteren) and ‘pop’ comes from pop music (or ‘popular music’). But a later creative interpretation for the name combines the English word pink and the Dutch word pop, which means doll, thus forming the origin for the logo, a doll in a pink dress.

Nowadays, Pinkpop is a three-day festival, from Saturday through Monday when on Pentecost weekend, or Friday through Sunday otherwise, with a 60,000 people per day capacity, and with performances on 4 separate stages. From 2006 through 2011, Pinkpop sold out six years in a row. During 44 editions, more than 2 million people attended Pinkpop. Some 700 music acts played at the festival.

Pinkpop 2008 had the largest audience of concert attendees to date, with an average of just over 60,000 people arriving each of the three days, prompting the festival organizers to announce that 180,000 people had visited the festival. Because the 42,500 available three-day passes sold out completely, the actual number of unique visitors is 94,000.

According to wikipedia