Eindhoven - Culture and Recreation

Culture and Recreation

Culturally and recreationally, Eindhoven was formed by two forces:

• Being a university city, Eindhoven has a large student population. The students from the Eindhoven University of Technology and a number of undergraduate schools give Eindhoven a young population, whose recreational needs are catered to by several different festivals, clubs and such.
• Eindhoven was long the main location of Philips. The Philips company undertook a lot of effort in the "cultural formation" of its workforce and has given the city both cultural institutions (such as the former POC and the Muziekcentrum Frits Philips) and sporting institutions (notably PSV).

Eindhoven is also known as the City of Light, due to the Company Philips originating there and because of the several projects involving lighting up buildings of the city. During Carnival, Eindhoven is rechristened Lampegat (Hamlet of Lamps, although for the ironic purposes of carnival the translation Hole in the ground with lamps is closer to the mark); this refers again to the important role of Philips in the Eindhoven community.