The building originally housed a sugar refinery built in the 19th century. In 1920, OVVV bought the factory and used it as a milk factory until it closed in 1969. The building was closed for a year, but reopened by Cor Schlösser and others as a cultural center, with its first event on July 17, 1970. It was only open for the summer; it featured a café, a restaurant and one hall for music and theatre. This was a success: Melkweg reopened in the summer of 1971 and 1972 before becoming a year-round venue in 1973. In the 1980s, it became more focused on live music. In 1985, a photo gallery opened. In 1995, The Old Hall opened, first with a capacity of 1,000 people, expanded to 1,500 in 2007. By 2010, the venue was hosting 400,000 guests annually and was estimated to have hosted 9 million guests since it opened.[3]
Notable events
In October 1980, U2 played their first concert outside of Ireland and the United Kingdom at the Melkweg.[1]
In October 1981, Grateful Dead played an unscheduled show at the venue using borrowed instruments.
Nirvana played at the venue in November 1989, before they were famous.[4]
In 1994, Rammstein, then an unknown newly formed band, played a show at the venue that was attended by 40 people.[1]
In 2011, Prince played a surprise show at the venue, with tickets going on sale one hour before the show started.[2]
The Max (capacity: 1,500; opened in 1995, renovated in 2007), the largest room, hosts the biggest music acts and is also used for parties, meetings and film projections.
The Old Hall (Oude Zaal) (capacity: 700) is the oldest concert hall of the venue, also the only one until the opening of "The Max" in 1995.
The Rabo Hall (Rabozaal) (capacity: 1,400) is in a separate building and mostly hosts film projections or theater plays.
The Theater Hall (Theaterzaal) (capacity: 90-130) is a small hall used for smaller artists and theatre plays.
The Cinema (capacity: 90) is a private film projection hall.
The Exhibition space (Expo) is used for art exhibitions.
