They are the men from the very beginning of Paaspop: Piet van Esch and Peter Roozendaal. As the founders of the festival, they still stand every year in the Schijndelse meadow with a jar of beer and enjoy what they were the first to set up. They never expected it to be this big.
It is 1979 when Paaspop takes place for the first time, on the initiative of youth workers in Schijndel. “They organized some festivals in the village and wanted something bigger. That didn’t go well the first time. We then set to work with a group of thirty,” says Peter Roozendaal.
That first edition, in Manege de Molenheide, was primitive, he says. “With dressing room in a living room, with sawdust and straw on the floor and a stage with two light poles and two good bands.”
They counted on a thousand visitors, but that turned out to be 2,500. “We didn’t expect that, we only had one toilet van.” In the riding school they got stuck at a maximum number of visitors of 3,500. Nowadays tens of thousands of visitors come to the festival site of Paaspop every day.
“Did we manage this? That’s how it always feels. It’s always a pleasure to be here, it’s a home feeling.”
The men organized the festival until the 1990s, when they handed over the work to a new generation. How do they feel when they now walk across the gigantic Paaspop site?
“I feel very proud when I walk around here. We have worked for twelve years on the foundation that is now there,” says Piet.
Peter: “Did we contribute to this? Did we manage this? That’s how it always feels. It’s always a pleasure to be here, it’s a feeling of home.”
“Herman Brood said: ‘Give me a highball glass with young jenever and two fingers of 7-Up.'”
A place where the men spent a lot of time at the bar is ‘t Kiske. Piet: “The artists came together afterwards and made music together. I remember Herman Brood sitting there at the bar, he wanted Tequila, but we didn’t have that. He said: ‘Just give me a long drink glass with young jenever and two fingers 7-Up.” A little later he wanted another one, but without the 7-Up. We later found that glass under the bar. He also had his limit.”
Those in their twenties are now in their seventies. Also this weekend they are regularly in ‘t Kiske, where artists still come together after a performance to have a beer. The two would soon join forces again to set up a festival. “But sometimes I’m glad I don’t have to do it anymore. It’s so big. We already had our hands full then. Now it’s really an industry.”
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