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.

[2][3] 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 four separate stages.

[4] In 1994 (the 25th edition), it was decided to sell only 60,000 tickets, to prevent overcrowding due to the popularity of the festival.

2007 saw a spin-off, later in the year, on 11 August, called Pinkpop Classic, for an older rock audience, with bands that had previously performed at the festival in past decades.

This was decided following the 2005 edition, in which the Pentecost weekend also fell early and therefore Pinkpop could not convince many great performers to come play at the festival.

[6] Inspired by the Monterey festival from 1967, a number of hip local bands were persuaded to come and play unpaid.

Pearl Jam was announced to make their 3rd appearance on the Pinkpop stage, but they cancelled, for two of their members would become fathers in the Pentecost weekend.

A fatal traffic accident involving festival-goers took place in the early morning of June 18.

After the festival, at around 04:00, a group of persons sat on the road near Campsite B, which was not closed to vehicular traffic.

[14] During the performance of the Foo Fighters on June 16, the disintegration of a large meteor was observed in the sky right behind the main stage and caught on video.

An analysis of over 200 eyewitness reports suggests that the disintegration took place at 23:11 local time near the Belgian city of Liège.

Acts scheduled to appear included, in order of billing: Pinkpop 2021 was planned for 18–20 June but, like in the previous year, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.