ProgPower Europe (formerly ProgPower) is a
progressive metal
Progressive metal (often shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven sound of the former with t ...
festival
A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...
held annually in the Netherlands since 1999. Notable headliners have included
Sons of Apollo,
Evergrey, and
Caligula's Horse.
History
The beginnings of ProgPower Europe started in November 1998 by René Janssen (mostly known from his activities for the Dutch Progressive Rock Pages) decided the time had come for a special event in the progressive metal scene. A contest was held to name the festival; Peter Renfro (founder of the ProgDay Festival in the US) submitted ProgPower, which was deemed the best. So René started looking around for other prog metal fans who would be willing to organise a festival with him.
The first ProgPower Europe took place in November 1999 at
013 in Tilburg, Netherlands. All the follow on events have taken place at Sjiwa in Baarlo, Netherlands.
ProgPower Europe Specials
Some special performances were given at ProgPower Europe:
* In 2008
Wolverine
The wolverine ( , ; ''Gulo gulo''), also called the carcajou or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species, member of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The w ...
played both on Saturday 4 October and on Sunday 5 October. On Saturday they played the same set they played 10 years before when they were headlining the first ProgPower festival. On Sunday they played their regular 2008 set.
* In 2009
Evergrey surprised everybody with an acoustic set during the diner break.
* In 2012
Persefone played Thursday night before ProgPower Europe in memory of Mikko Laine, who died in a truck accident the year before. Mikko Laine was the guitarplayer in the Finnish band Sole Remedy.
* In 2013
Damian Wilson
Damian Wilson (born 11 October 1969) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Wilson works in the progressive metal genre and was the lead singer of Headspace (band), Headspace and Threshold (band), Threshold. He sang and toured with ban ...
was doing an acoustic set and standup show (!). He also jumped on a table outside the venue during a break playing acoustic guitar and sing-a-long songs with the ProgPower family.
* In 2014
Pain of Salvation played the whole of
Remedy Lane, in addition to a regular set.
Lineups
References
External links
* {{Official website, 1=http://www.progpowereurope.com/
Music festivals in the Netherlands
Heavy metal festivals in the Netherlands
1999 establishments in the Netherlands
Music festivals established in 1999