In The Hague everybody knows Parkpop. An annual free festival with cool national and international bands. This year the organisation added a paid festival the night before Parkpop: Night at the Park. With a line-up that makes the heart melt of every baby boomer it is no surprise that the audience exists for approximately eighty percent of middle aged rock glory.
De Kraaien opened the brand new festival with their typical act of boobs and vodka. It’s a bit weird considering the rest of the line-up, but hey, they’re from The Hague so that’ll do. After this shitfest, it is time for some Dutch glory: Van Dik Hout. Just like De Kraaien they performed hits and old songs, guided by an audience knowing every single word. Unlike De Kraaien no boobs and vodka here though. Just an easy going performance, that’s a bit boring at times.
To spice things up De Staat followed. Probably unknown for the crowd wearing their Madness shirts (the final act), but embraced after their kick ass energetic performance. Lead singer Torre Florim proves to know a little bit of stand-up comedy when entertaining the spectators in between songs. Especially epic is their cover of Jason Derulo’s ‘Talk Dirty’, making r&b acceptable.
All these bands are just teasers for what is about to come: Golden Earring and Madness. The crowd gets a bit larger, older and more enthusiastic. Fan-gear is worn and the dancing starts when Golden Earring performs like they’re still in their prime days of their rock’n’roll lives. The drummer only slightly reveals that they’re over sixty years old when after his solo he sighs like he ran a marathon. Same goes for the headliner of the night: Madness. A ska revival from the eighties that’s popular amongst young and older people in the audience. When the night falls, the crowd shows to have an unlimited energy level and keeps on ‘swinging’ like there’s no tomorrow. So like the oldies on stage performing as if they haven’t aged at all, the crowd is going wild when dancing (off beat, but who gives a shit? This is their youth revival), throwing beer in the air and singing along.
The premiere of Night at the Park is a success and even though we might’ve been a bit harsh on the fact that the headliners already have their glory days behind them, truth of the matter is: that glory is still not lost.
Photography: Markéta Tichavská