42 Amazing Photographs of the Kralingen Pop Festival, the "Dutch Woodstock", in 1970

The Kralingen Music Festival was a music festival held in the Kralingen neighborhood of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on the June 26-28, 1970. Performing bands included The Byrds, T. Rex, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, and the headlining Pink Floyd. Approximately 150.000 attended. Festival posters show that the festival was billed in Dutch as 'Pop Paradijs' and 'Holland Pop Festival 70', and that the main investor was Coca-Cola. In both English and Dutch, the festival is also known by the English name Stamping Ground, and is often billed as the European answer to Woodstock. It took place approximately one year after Woodstock, and two months before the third 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.

The Festival became an influential event, as it turned out to be the actual beginning of the Dutch tolerance policy towards marijuana. The many present undercover cops did not arrest any of the users or small traders: it became clear that there were just too many, and all of them peaceful.

(Photos by Jean Paul Margnac and Harrie Verstappen)