Venues
For most musicians, performing is the reason why they make music. In addition, it is an important source of income. The venues that are geared towards pop music are referred to as the club circuit. Many of them are affiliated with the Association of Dutch Music Venues and Festivals (Vereniging Nederlandse Poppodia en -Festivals, VNPF).
Core venues
The Netherlands has 58 core venues according to the Performing Arts Fund NL (as from 2020). Core venues receive a subsidy to programme Dutch bands and are subdivided into A, B and C venues. In addition, they have to meet a number of conditions in terms of management, facilities, organisation, administration and publicity. Capacity also plays a role in addition to these basic requirements.
- A venues have a capacity of at least 450 visitors and organise a minimum of 100 (pop music) activities per year. (Example: P60 in Amstelveen.)
- B venues have a capacity of at least 350 visitors and organise a minimum of 20 concerts eligible for a subsidy on an annual basis. (Example: Victorie in Alkmaar.)
- C venues have a capacity of at least 200-350 visitors. (Examples include OCCII in Amsterdam, P3 in Purmerend, Meester in Almere and Ekko in Utrecht.)
The VNPF uses a slightly different classification: a large venue offers space to 1,000 or more visitors, a medium-sized venue to 400-999 visitors and a small venue to less than 400 visitors.
Directly to:
Concert halls
In addition to core venues, there are a number of concert halls in the Netherlands. A concert hall plays a facilitating role for concert promoters and has its own programming. These concert halls also do not have their own infrastructure for light and sound. The artist arranges this himself/herself. The most famous concert halls in the Netherlands are the Ziggo Dome, Ahoy Rotterdam and AFAS Live.
In addition to concert halls, you also have stadiums like the Amsterdam Arena or GelreDome. They also play a facilitating role.
Directly to:
Capacity Dutch venues
| Venue | City | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Ziggo Dome | Amsterdam | 17,000 |
| AFAS Live | Amsterdam | 6,000 |
| Melkweg | Amsterdam | 1,250 and 650 |
| Paradiso | Amsterdam | 1,500 and 250 |
| 013 | Tilburg | 3,000 and 700 |
| Paard | The Hague | 1,100 and 300 |
| Patronaat | Haarlem | 860 and 350 |
| TivoliVredenburg | Utrecht | 1,717-2,000, 2,000, 650, 543, 270-450 and 100-150 |
| Doornroosje | Nijmegen | 1,100 and 400 |
| Effenaar | Eindhoven | 1,200 and 400 |
| P60 | Amstelveen | 600 and 80 |
| Hedon | Zwolle | 850 and 200 |
| Vera | Groningen | 450 and 80 |