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Move over, Pinkpop! SMKMRKT is here!

30 May 2017

Many festivals start out with one or more music podiums, and later paste on a festival market. The SMKMRKT – as the name suggests – has gone about it the other way round: the trendy market with vintage stalls, food trucks, and yes, also live music, is growing into a full-fledged festival.

Move over, Pinkpop! From 3 to 5 June, Vasim will host the fourth edition of the SMKMRKT Whitsun Festival, one of three big events organised by SMKMRKT. Besides this festival, there is also the SMKMRKT Labyrinth during the Four-Day Marches and the SMKMRKT Winter Fest at Christmas time. Although these are separate festivals, all three combine music, speciality foods, a market and a great atmosphere.

Regular visitors will notice a few differences in this fourth edition of the Whitsun Festival. For one thing, there is no entrance fee. ‘Because everything has a price nowadays, and people already have enough fixed expenses’, says Alba Otten Hernández, one of the organisers. Also, the musical programme is much more extensive this time. The headliners are well-known artists: The Kik and troubadour Lucky Fonz III. These are supported by a number of less well-known bands and DJs.

‘You can literally tickle your taste buds with the culinary specialties.’

But the SMKMRKT would not be the SMKMRKT without interesting flavours. You can literally tickle your taste buds with the culinary specialties offered by the many food trucks. But Otten Hernández understands flavour in a broader sense, to include clothing, accessories and interior design. This is why this edition centres for the first time on the NYMA Whitsun market and flea market.

At the Whitsun market you can burn your student grant on market goodies, but you can also sell vintage clothing and objects yourself in order to redeem your depleted bank account. This makes the SMKMRKT different from all other festival markets. ‘Think of it as a modern take on the ancient market principle’, says Otten Hernández. ‘The link with your festival memories makes your purchases all the more special.’

It has become a trend to sell second-hand items at festivals such as Down the Rabbit Hole, or during special events such as those of Vintage People, where older people sell clothing to the younger generation. But being able to buy vintage treasure from other festival visitors is what makes the SMKMRKT so unique. And this uniqueness also explains how the SMKMRKT Whitsun festival has grown from a market with a side programme and good food into a balanced, complete festival with music, food trucks and vintage.

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