Pinkpop in Landgraaf, the Netherlands, started the 15 Days Of Summer festival tour and was one of those summer events I was most looking forward to in advance. It’s always an occasion to see Mika doing a daylight show in front of an energetic audience at a festival this big and important. From my point of view - watching from the audience and being able to compare many summer events - it feels amazing to watch him to introduce his special, colourful world and to see the excitement in the crowd where many people know his songs but might never have seen his show in front of their eyes before. The sunlight highlights the elegance, the colours and the joy and you can feel the happiness in the audience. It happens every time and it happened this time as well. The weather was incredibly sunny and burning, even “fucking hot”, and I wasn’t the only one who felt we could have been in Coachella instead of Landgraaf, the mood was just slightly different.

This was my first time at Pinkpop and I liked the festival since entering it. Events this big and established are usually professionally done but at the same time the Pinkpop vibe was still very relaxed which I particularly loved. The whole line-up was good and the act before Mika was already very well known so the crowd was big and had a great energy already this time of the day. The concept included two stages opposite to each other (South vs. North) and even though the nighttime headliner stage (South) was seen as the main stage, the other one where Mika performed (North) was equally huge. The circumstances offered an ideal background for Mika’s joyful performance. I knew even before his turn that the show would be fantastic and it certainly was. 

The performance started with a big wow effect and a totally new intro and Mika appearing on stage wearing a dashingly elegant light greyish-blue suit and huge, incredibly generous and vital looking wings. The outfit was breathtakingly beautiful, sophisticated and in every way impressive and the start with We Are Golden couldn’t have been better. It was possible to hear a collective gasp in the audience which was with him from the first seconds. Next Origin and suddenly hundreds of hands in the crowd started to wave yellow sunflowers that were given before the show by a local Mika fan. A happy moment for sure and the bright yellow in flowers looked perfect and simple enough with Mika’s stylish blue suit. As the third song Lollipop which together with Origin is one of the most important songs on the setlist in an event like this. 

After this the show continued mostly with the biggest hits but included also Ice Cream and Yo-Yo which I found equally important as Origin and Lollipop in the beginning of the set. Festival audiences demand artists to perform their biggest hits. However, at the same time it feels hugely important to show how the career has evolved and to include something different and fresh and I loved that Ice Cream and Yo-Yo were there. They are not from the latest album nor new for people who follow Mika but still represent the latest years. Both are excellent festival songs and especially Yo-Yo felt a big highlight because I love it performed this way and because I had truly missed it. The show was compact but had new visuals for almost every song and we saw super cute bird animations and as a quirky detail flying teeth in the background. Yes he had flying dentures in the background! 

The gorgeous but probably enormously heavy wings were taken off after the first song and the jacket was soon gone as well. Before Big Girl the outfit was changed to a new, extremely bright and strong pink, appliquéd suit and probably as a small surprise to the security Mika headed to the audience as he often does and as always the crowd loved it. The setlist included Relax and Happy Ending and for Grace Kelly the white piano revealed the huge, familiar rainbow which looked good on a stage this big. As the final highlight the giant heart with the letter M filled the stage and the audience jumped for Love Today and then a quick bow and the Yo-Yo dance and then it was over. 

A festival performance like this is only one hour long but it’s an hour spent in the best possible way, always my favourite moments. Every single second was full of beauty, elegance, joy and happy smiles. The performance and the energy in the audience were fantastic, it was in every way a positive experience and I heard random people talking about Mika still the next day. A lovely opening for the new summer tour.