O13, pop venue

The town’s leading pop venue is 013, named after the Tilburg telephone area code. The building was designed by Mels Crouwel, who also designed the De Pont gallery. The building’s exterior rather resembles a padded Chesterfield sofa, with the leather upholstery being tufted with buttons. In the case of 013, these buttons are CDs keeping a dark, glass-wool-padded material in its place. This, the architect explained when the building was opened in 1998, helps to suggest that the building is sound-proof and that no one living in the vicinity need worry about the decibels being produced within.

Fist structure dedicated to pop music

013 is the upshot of the merger of three venues: Noorderligt, a former cinema on the Veldhovenring, which had only one hall for no more than a thousand visitors; Bat Cave, a platform for youth culture; and MuziekKantenWinkel, who arranged rehearsal spaces for starting-out pop musicians. When these three got their act together, the Tilburg council was prepared to support plans for a new structure dedicated to pop music. This was a first in the Netherlands and most fitting for a town with a rock academy. After it was converted in 2015, the main hall has a 3,000 seat capacity, and the minor hall can take an audience of 700 people. The 013 program offers concerts, dance and club nights and major festivals like Roadburn and WOO HAH, and often serves a student party venue.