Racoon & Krezip
Entering the field I noticed that the festival wasn’t going to sell out like Fields Of Rock did just a week before. Instead of a possible 50.000 a nice 40.000 found their way to Nijmegen, leaving enough space to move freely across the pitch. The first band to play the main stage was the Dutch pop rock band Racoon. Mojo gave this band the chance to play probably the largest crowd they’d played so far resulting in a very enthusiastic performance.

Krezip took things a bit further with their appealing rock and the expressive performance of Jacqeline. I’d seen this band play years back. I was pleased to notice that Krezip has transformed from a teenage band into a mature band. They also proved to have guts by playing an excellent rock cover of the Brittany Spears song ‘Toxic’.

Simple Plan & Queens Of The Stone Age
The first major surprise of the day was the Canadian punk rock band Simple Plan. I remember listening to a couple of mp3-files on this band’s homepage and being not too impressed with the music. Well, I can tell you that this band has got what it takes to make it as a major festival act. In fact Simple Plan was one of the few bands on the main stage that were capable of playing a crowd. The way they did it could be considered predictable, but they sure as hell got the crowd jumping.

Queens Of The Stone Age was considered to be the first major band on the main stage. The band had brought along quite a few fans and the expectations I had, were pretty high. I hate to say that these expectations weren’t lived up to up until the last couple of songs. Queens Of The Stone Age was the only band having trouble getting the sound right and the first part of the set was rather boring; the fact that the musicians sticked to their spot the entire show didn’t help much either. This band obviously had little pleasure in entertaining the crowd.

Jamie Cullum & Keane
Well I can be short about Jamie Cullum, this piano popper, caused long cues in front of every booze and food stand on the field. I don’t know who was responsible for contracting this jazz musician, but next time: remember that the name of the festival is ROCKin’ Park and not Poppin’ Park!

The same goes for the next band in line: Keane. I’ve never before seen a band without guitars play a rock festival. On the positive side I must admit that Keane gave the best they had and I’m sure that many sceptics were surprised by the energetic performance. The band exceeded my expectations, their live show is much better than the album.

Lenny Kravitz & R.E.M.
When Lenny Kravitz blew the first notes on top of the crowd I swore I had heard a breath of relief going through the crowd. Finally someone that knows how to play festivals, someone that can entertain for more than thirty minutes, someone that knows how to ROCK! It is without doubt that Kravitz was the highlight of the day, turning the field into a heaving mass of weaving and jumping rockers. Kravitz knew exactly which songs the people came to hear, resulting in an excellent best off Lenny show.

And just this is where the headliner REM made a huge mistake. This band considered their performance as just another show in their World tour, playing a variety of mostly unfamiliar songs in an indoor setting. They even abused the TV screens for projecting video images instead of proper live footage of the band in action, making it almost impossible to enjoy the show in the back of the field. REM had its main interest in creating atmosphere with their song selection and their own light show. Looking behind me and seeing the tent stage being flooded with dynamic and flashing lights I found myself wondering why I decided on seeing REM in stead of Nine Inch Nails... It wasn’t until the final encore “Man On The Moon” before REM managed to get the entire crowd going. Despite the fact that I really enjoyed this last song I immediately realised that REM could have been so much better if they’d just taken the effort of selecting some rock festival songs from their large catalogue.

In conclusion I must say that I really enjoyed my stay at the festival. The atmosphere was great, everything from food to toilets and even the weather had been taken care of in the smallest details, but if this festival is going to return to Nijmegen next year I urge that the name of the festival is being changed to ‘Poppin’ Park’ (in which case I will probably skip out on the festival) or that the bands on the main stage are in fact - as the name of the festival indicates - ROCK acts!

(Review: Geert Oldenmenger)