Pukkelpop 2011

[pryce]

that sat really needs 3 or 4 more biggish bands

i can see 3 bands id see and those can be missed quite easily and i wouldnt be that worried

but im not too worried as lot of ppl over the web think there will be a few more well known names added

[gdarmo]

Last year we paid the ticket price (150 Euro) plus return flights from manchester to antwerp which cost approx £100. Train travel through Belgium is free with your festival ticket. We also stayed a couple of days in Antwerp which added to the cost, but we aren't doing that this time.

We didnt even spend that much in the festival on food and beer. We had pre-ordered £50 worth of tokens for starters and struggled to use them all over 3 days, as the food and drink options provided by the locals outside the front gate on the main road (christened Jupiler Boulevard) were so much cheaper, and no more than 5 minutes walk from pretty much anywhere on the festival site. HUGE BBQ sausages in baguettes with lots of salad available for about 5 euro, 330ml cans of Jupiler for 1 to 1.5 euro, cheap continental breakfast ham / cheese sandwiches available for 1 euro, and also the "Bicky burger" for 3 euro (a hamburger with dried onion bits, salad and thousand island dressing - odd but good!) . If you want something more substantial, there is a thai noodle bar in someones garden near the station, and a pizza place about 10 minutes walk from the entrance over the flyover over the railway.

Basically, on festival ticket (inc camping), flights, food and beer - we spent a little over £300 per person - which is on a par with the cost of Glastonbury ticket + Train / National Express to get there, before you even think about the beer and food budget....

[gdarmo]

Agreed that Pukkelpop is about more than just the headliners, but I don't see much in the rest of the lineup that gets me really excited.

I saw 35 bands last year - can see about 12 that I'd wanna go and see this year - and a few of those are MEH choices too.

Guess it depends where you come from musically but I had hoped to see more NME fodder, such as The Vaccines for example.

Also hoped for Kasabian on the undercard, and expected The Strokes and Chemical Brothers.

[branvan]

no john grant, no midlake :-(

.. and no walkmen... :-( rubik would be a fine choice. happy with blonde redhead.

[millionaire]

Hi people

So none of my friends got glasto tickets. We are going to come here instead, YAY! I love dEUS & Eminem.

Can UK people who have travelled before tell me some things? Like the best airports to fly to for connections. It's getting mighty expensive for flights though :angry: We'll either fly from London or Scotland. Just got a hotel, which is apparently 20 min walk from the festival(we'll see)quite reasonably priced.

Also getting drink into the festival? How much searching goes on?

Anything I NEED to know?

I'm excited, I've wanted to come to this festival for years as I like a few Belgian bands. No one would come with though, so secretly I'm a little pleased that glasto fell through, but shhhh don't tell them that!

[benrothwell]

My anger has subsided. There is still a lot of bands to come. And the lack of bold on Friday and Saturday indicates bigger names to come.

Someone on here mentioned a campsite nearby for 10e a night - any chance of the details?

[benrothwell]

Anyone care to guess on stages for announced acts.. I know its early. Going on previous years looking at betwene 7/8 acts a stage per day.

For Friday my guess would be...

Main Stage

Paul Kalkbrenner (in the now traditional electronic to finish on the main stage?)

Foo Fighters

Thirty Seconds to Mars

Rise Against

Skunk Anansie

Bullet for My Valentine

-?-

-?-

Marquee

Fleet Foxes

Crookers

The Streets

Skate Stage

Good Charlotte

Bring Me The Horizon

Face to Face

Adept

Title Fight

Chateau

Noah and The Whale

James Blake

Eliza Doolitle

Anna Calvi

Naked and the Famous

Dance Hall

Mark Ronson & The Business Int'l

Benga & Skream

Netsky

DJ Fresh

Modestep

Boiler Room

Dave Clarke

Skrillex

Canblaster

Congorock

Club/b]

Trophy Wife

Explosions in the Sky

Miles Kane

Dry the River

Edited April 26, 2011 by benrothwell

[Trufflehound]

Anyone care to guess on stages for announced acts.. I know its early. Going on previous years looking at betwene 7/8 acts a stage per day.

Wablief

Trophy Wife

Explosions in the Sky

Miles Kane

Dry the River

[Trufflehound]

Hi people

So none of my friends got glasto tickets. We are going to come here instead, YAY! I love dEUS & Eminem.

Can UK people who have travelled before tell me some things? Like the best airports to fly to for connections. It's getting mighty expensive for flights though :angry: We'll either fly from London or Scotland. Just got a hotel, which is apparently 20 min walk from the festival(we'll see)quite reasonably priced.

Also getting drink into the festival? How much searching goes on?

Anything I NEED to know?

I'm excited, I've wanted to come to this festival for years as I like a few Belgian bands. No one would come with though, so secretly I'm a little pleased that glasto fell through, but shhhh don't tell them that!

Edited April 26, 2011 by Trufflehound

[TheNewUnion]

Hi people

So none of my friends got glasto tickets. We are going to come here instead, YAY! I love dEUS & Eminem.

Can UK people who have travelled before tell me some things? Like the best airports to fly to for connections. It's getting mighty expensive for flights though :angry: We'll either fly from London or Scotland. Just got a hotel, which is apparently 20 min walk from the festival(we'll see)quite reasonably priced.

Also getting drink into the festival? How much searching goes on?

Anything I NEED to know?

I'm excited, I've wanted to come to this festival for years as I like a few Belgian bands. No one would come with though, so secretly I'm a little pleased that glasto fell through, but shhhh don't tell them that!

Edited April 26, 2011 by TheNewUnion

[benrothwell]

Ooops, yep, I did mean Club...

[millionaire]

Most convenient airport is Brussels National, but not the cheapest. Eindhoven (Ryanair fly there) is closer, but even though it looks convenient on the map its a right pain getting to Hasselt/Pukkelpop on public transport. I know this for bitter fact because I live in Eindhoven. I think there may be some special coiaches laid on, but they won't be cheap. Charleroi ("Brussels South") is also a bugger to get to. Antwerp is quite convenient but not cheap. for costs, some people fly to Schiphol, from where the train cnnection is longer but easy (one change in Antwerp).

Getting drink into the festival depends on who's on security. Some people are jobsworths, some don't care. A bit of luck involved. I've noticed that if my wife carries our daypack in it gets searched less thoroughly then when I'm carrying it (clearly I look shifty... Or she looks honest...). Or if you secrete something about your body, it shouldn't be much of a problem. I've never been body-searched - only bags get a going over.

Which hotel are you in? Hasselt is about a 40-minute walk to the festival site (or there are shuttle buses from the station for the lazy).

[millionaire]

Take a look here http://www.eufest.com/pukkelpop/transport they are running shuttles frmm the Airports in Charleroi and Amsterdam, opens up the flight options a little bit. Saves messing with public transport (though the public transport is free with festival ticket).

Also, on the drink, like Armo said, Jupiler Boulevard is right outside the festival, it's abot 1.5 euro a can. We just popped out between bands, sank a few beers then headed back in for the next band. They aren't particularly thorough at searching though, we went in with bottles of water a few times, they just make you chuck the top away (little did they know I had a spare top in my pocket, the fools). Never checked the contents of the bottle so taking e.g. vodka in a water bottle should be painless.

[Trufflehound]

Thanks very much! So far Antwerp for me in London is cheapest to get to by air, going from Scotland is expensive though. Didn't know about Schiphol, will look into that. Does the festival ticket cover all transport from all those airports on the wednesday? I may do the eurostar when prices come out, undecided.

Sounds alot like festival security here, I'm normally quite good at picking the ones who don't care. Are there bottles of soft drinks for sale in there? For mixers!

The park hotel? I think its on the outskirts, on google maps it doesn't look that far, I emailed and they said 20 min walk or 12e taxi. Even if its 40 mins or an hour walk I dont mind.

Edited April 26, 2011 by Trufflehound

[gdarmo]

AH so its not like most of the festivals here, where once you are in you must stay in. That's cool and probably what we'll end up doing. ooooooh i'm all excited, come on August!

I'll look into that transport link too. We won't be wanting to go to the festival site from the airports though, but maybe they drop in hasselt.

Thanks very much.

Edited April 26, 2011 by gdarmo

[Semprini]

As per previous years, I'm pretty underwhelmed by this announcement. I'm not overly concerned though as they haven't let me down yet and (fingers crossed) it's not going to happen this year. The nagging doubt I have though is that there is nothing in this announcement that has given me the 'WOW', factor. I'm looking forward to seeing quite a few of the DJs and bands that will most likely play in the Dance Hall, Boiler and Chateau but most of them I could probably catch without too much effort in the next 12 months or so where I live. I'm pleased that Birdy Nam Nam, Andy C, The Subs, Netsky and Skream and Benga (who have now represented either on their own or together for 5 PPs in a row) are all back and Emalkay, Camo and Krooked, Untold, and Danny Byrd will all be superb.

I might be completely wrong but it could be that Ed Banger are hosting the Boiler on Saturday like Boys Noize records did last year. Busy P, SebastiAn, Cassius, Feadz and Carte Blanche are all connected with the label, with possibly A-Trak as special guest or something??

The biggest concern I have though is to do with the friends I go with. They are a bit older and only really watch bands on the Main, Club, Marquee and Chateau and there is virtually nothing in this announcement they will even know let alone like! As everyone has said though, this is only half the line up so hopefully a few of the rest will offer some appeasement!

[TheNewUnion]

Are there bottles of soft drinks for sale in there? For mixers!

Edited April 26, 2011 by TheNewUnion

[benrothwell]

Semprini your thoughts sum up mine pretty much. When going to PP I wanna go with friends and whilst Id be happy to just go with the flow and check out new acts, my friends are going to want something more established. In comparisons to last years first announcement - this has absolutely nothing.

We knew about the Foos before.. theres nothing thats really going to attract any of my friends on this so far.

Does anyone remember how long until we had the 2nd announcement last year? I guess I am now going to be waiting on that...

Can't see the tickets being a sell out this year, so no rush for me.

[millionaire]

The festival ticket covers train within Belgium, so yes from Antwerp and Brussels, no from Amsterdam Schiphol. From Schiphol you'd have to buy a ticket to Essen (the first station across the Belgian border), then it'll be free from there. If you do go that way, remember to specify you want a ticket to Essen "in Belgium" otherwise you may up with a ticket to Essen "in Germany"! You don't have to get off there though - in fact you'd have a job as the doors are locked and the train clatters through at about 120kmh... Or get the festival bus mentioned above of course.

Not sure about the full range of soft drinks as i don't usually make it past beer or water, but I'm sure they cater for most tastes!

Ah yes, never been there but i was checking out the Park last year. Looks like a quiet location, just being out of the centre the shuttle bus is no use to you. As you've already been told, taxi or walk. But looking at the map I still think 20 mins is optimistic. 30 at least from there I'd guess.

[TheNewUnion]

Also food? I'm vegetarian...Is it normally hot?When will ALL the bands be announced?

Edited April 26, 2011 by TheNewUnion

[millionaire]

Don't recall bottles, only cans. That said, pretty much all of the neighbours sell food and drink out of their gardens so likely one of them will have bottles. Failing that, go for a mooch down to the Shell petrol station. About 10-15 minutes walk, just go over the railway and keep walking - not far at all. There's also a Spar a bit further on that's got everything you would expect in your local Spar (there's a bakery near by that our Aussie neighbours from last year said was amazing, they went for breakfast every day)

[millionaire]

Food

There was the odd veggie place. One sticks in my head if you stood with your back to the main stage it was all the way in the back of the field on the left (and there are always Frites, though they may be cooked in animal juice).

Again, up and down Jupiler Boulevard might be your best bet. If all else fails there's the Pizza place Armo mentioned. We went last year, pizza was pretty cheap and huge. They sell beer too, and have clean toilets.

Sun

Last year is chucked it down when we were queueing to get into the camping, proper bounced down. After that it was pretty much hot and sunny. It's meant to be pretty changeable in that region though - seems it's very much like here weather wise

[pryce]

My anger has subsided. There is still a lot of bands to come. And the lack of bold on Friday and Saturday indicates bigger names to come.

Someone on here mentioned a campsite nearby for 10e a night - any chance of the details?

[TheNewUnion]

Oh yeah, cheese sandwiches can be had for 1 euro.

Just checked my email as I contacted the fest last year asking about taking bottles of water in. Here is their response

This is allowed but you have to throw away the small cap of the plastic bottles.

Kind regards,

The Pukkelpop team

[gdarmo]

Food

There was the odd veggie place. One sticks in my head if you stood with your back to the main stage it was all the way in the back of the field on the left (and there are always Frites, though they may be cooked in animal juice).

Again, up and down Jupiler Boulevard might be your best bet. If all else fails there's the Pizza place Armo mentioned. We went last year, pizza was pretty cheap and huge. They sell beer too, and have clean toilets.

Sun

Last year is chucked it down when we were queueing to get into the camping, proper bounced down. After that it was pretty much hot and sunny. It's meant to be pretty changeable in that region though - seems it's very much like here weather wise