Pandora's Music Box Festival
In 1985, the new wave pop festival Pandora's Music Box (PMB) took place in De Doelen. It was the last edition of this leading festival, which, with its innovative and spectacular programming featuring up to 33 pop acts, would serve as an example for later major Dutch music festivals, such as Lowlands.
Interest was enormous, with all 6,600 tickets for both festival evenings selling out within two days. However, there was one notable condition attached to the arrival of visitors: “All visitors to Pandora '85 will be photographed.” Not only the visitors, but also the crew, staff, musicians, and journalists had to have their portraits taken in specially built studios upon arrival. And all of this was done entirely analog, on traditional photographic film.
The photos remained untraceable for years until DIG IT UP (DIU - Heritage Lab and treasure hunter of Rotterdam city culture) rediscovered the three film cans containing 6,000 negatives, digitized them, and made them accessible. Recently, another 2,000 negatives were added, completing the collection with no fewer than 8,000 unique images.
Journalist Marieke Sjerps was also present at the festival at the time. She delved deep into this remarkable archive and brought the story back to life with a compelling article in HP/De Tijd (September 2025). The article can be read at reportersonline.nl.
Sjerps writes:
“After Pandora ’85, photographer John Groot (1961–2007), who had taken on the photo project, took the nearly 250 full rolls of film home to develop them. (...) The film cans eventually ended up in Delft, in the attic of Berry Visser, co-creator of Pandora's Music Box and the mastermind behind the photo project."
The photo collection, consisting of 8,000 negatives, is a unique historical document from the turbulent 1980s, a period in which the music world was bursting with energy and diversity. All the leading trends of the time are captured in pure, analog portraits. The ambitious plan to send these images into space on a rocket, as an interstellar time capsule on a journey lasting millions of years, unfortunately remained a pipe dream.
Curious about the portraits, or wondering if you can recognize yourself, your father, or an old friend among the visitors? View the slideshow or order a digital version of the photos in high resolution.
View the slideshow of photos here
