Pukkelpop 2017

[DDave]

2/3 of combi tickets sold out. 

Wonder if that's with a decreased capacity with the loss of 2 stages?

[Death By Sexy]

1 hour ago, bluenova said:

Do you think they're in the same order that they'll play? The clashfinder's been updated, but not in the same order - can't remember who did it, but still some differences.

I think so, but that will mean bear's den will be sub on the main stage, what would be strange.

Ryan adams on the main is not that strange since they are subbing editors and the xx.

Afghan Whigs should be in the marquee, they don't fit on the main.

[arcuse]

55 minutes ago, DiscothequeDave said:

2/3 of combi tickets sold out. 

Wonder if that's with a decreased capacity with the loss of 2 stages?

That's about going with the same speed as last year and now with the loss of Shelter, people are either not going to buy their tix anymore if they're into that genre or just selling. Atleast that's what I think is gonna happen in the next few weeks. Not that I'm into that kind of music but killing a stage/genre that was a big part in the PKP history really makes me sad tho. I wonder if they're going to keep it 'urban - poprock - punk' in the Lift. 

I'm doing the clashfinder, they used to do it alphabetically if I remember correctly so idk what's up with this order. I edited based on popularity and likeliness of getting an evening/afternoon spot. 

They still needa replace Chance The Rapper so, hopefully we'll get news about that too aswell real soon 

edit: it could work yes, as it is put on the website but Bear's Den as sub is a no haha  I think The Afghan Whigs are gonna sub 

Edited May 10, 2017 by arcuse

[Dietediet]

1 hour ago, arcuse said:

edit: it could work yes, as it is put on the website but Bear's Den as sub is a no haha  I think The Afghan Whigs are gonna sub 

Bear's Den is so popular in Belgium that they play arena shows. So having them sub over Afghan Whigs makes perfect sense, especially in that folk combo with M&S.

[SarahEmpre]

Reality: last year was a critic year for PKP crew. Huge economical losses. Second edition of 2011 fiancial disaster. Not as many tickets sold as expected, the most expensive booking since Eninem (Rihanna), and the lowest ammount of food and drinks tokens sold in PKP history.

Reality: PKP 17 booking budget is 30% lower than PKP 16 budget, less bands booked, less expensive headliners, less stages, but tickets with the same price (200€ combiticket, 100€ day tickets). 

It's interesting what DiscoDave has said: will they decrease the capacity now that they have removed two stages? What I've heard here is that the total festival surface will be smaller this year. The place where The Club used to be and were Wablief/Castello used to be won't have any stage. The Club will be at the same location than last year (where Shelter used to be) and will never clash with Marquee.

In my circle of friends people is devastated with Shelter and Wablief death. Limburg is a province with a huge culture with rock, punk, metal music. Groezrock, Sjock Fesstival, Rio Rock are important local festival that has influeced lot of the people here to listen to hardcore, rock and punk music, and Shelter Stage was the perfect excuse to all our friends who are in that kind os music to spend 200 euros and come to Pukkelpop. Wablief was like a little goal to reach to every little beligan musician. Playing there was like a one-life oportunity to start a successful music career if you are belgian. All newcomers bands were trying to convince Eppo for booking them for playing for free in an early slot there. Huge changes for a festival in just one year. It's important that this year the festival will sell out, because something big happened last year if they had taken such painful decisions. I know Eppo and I know the music he listen to, and I am pretty sure that killing Shelter Stage had been the hardest decision he has taken in his pukkelpop career. 

Edited May 10, 2017 by SarahEmpre

[Death By Sexy]

Folk combo makes sense, and yeah, they are popular....

Bears den: AB brussels fall 2016, Trix and Vooruit 2017, Pukkelpop 2017, Lotto arena 2017,.... such an overkill

I am wondering if there will be subs added who play Werchter

[johnybegood]

I used to spend lot of time in Shelter Stage in every Pukkelpop I've been to (7 times in the last 8 years). Now I analyze the line-up, and I miss what Shelter had always offered me. Nice guitar bands to fill the gaps between my must-see bands in the other stages. No Pukkelpop for me this year. It's like a different festival to me, and I prefer keeping the memories of Pukkelpop 2016 with NOFX, Biffy Clyro or Noel Gallagher playing in the Main Stage and Thrice, Refused or Marky Ramone rocking the Shelter. The perfect ending to a perfect love story. 

Edited May 10, 2017 by johnybegood

[arcuse]

32 minutes ago, Dietediet said:

Bear's Den is so popular in Belgium that they play arena shows. So having them sub over Afghan Whigs makes perfect sense, especially in that folk combo with M&S.

But as a sub, why aren't they then in a bigger font on the poster?  On Fb they were only in the 3th package (on the cover pic). I mean I get what you mean but idk.

[DDave]

16 minutes ago, SarahEmpre said:

 

Reality: PKP 17 booking budget is 30% lower than PKP 16 budget, less bands booked, less expensive headliners, less stages, but tickets with the same price (200€ combiticket, 100€ day tickets). 

It's interesting what DiscoDave has said: will they decrease the capacity now that they have removed two stages? What I've heard here is that the total festival surface will be smaller this year. The place where The Club used to be and were Wablief/Castello used to be won't have any stage. The Club will be at the same location than last year (where Shelter used to be) and will never clash with Marquee.

 

That'll make the main stage look even more empty at certain times, assuming they won't move it. 

All sounds terribly sad and to me sounds like a festival trying to find its way after a couple of tricky years and an ever changing festival demographic and landscape. I still think they haven't really bounced back from 2015 where they went cheap on the headliners and Rihanna last year was a terrible, terrible booking.

 

 

[arcuse]

2 hours ago, SarahEmpre said:

It's interesting what DiscoDave has said: will they decrease the capacity now that they have removed two stages? What I've heard here is that the total festival surface will be smaller this year. The place where The Club used to be and were Wablief/Castello used to be won't have any stage. The Club will be at the same location than last year (where Shelter used to be) and will never clash with Marquee.

So something like this? I imagine they're gonna put Lift at the same spot where Wablief?! used to be, no? I've no idea why they killed off Wablief?! Like it used to be a spot for Belgian upcoming bands and now they changed that to Lift where there'll be upcoming bands and artists from urban, poprock en punk/metal.. ? 

[Semprini]

Think it's worth remembering that these changes just bring the festival back to where it was for the previous ten years prior to 2016 (8 stages and likely similar size terrain). The capacity during that time has remained pretty constant, around 65,000 per day. They didn't increase it last year because they added two extra stages so it won't necessarily follow that they'll reduce it this summer because those stages won't be there - it'll just go back to how it was.

From the sounds of things, the Lift will be a proper size tent and the Booth will be bigger so that may well cancel out any 'losses' from the demise of the Shelter and Wablief? Not sure why they'd drop the capacity as the cost of putting on 8 stages will be more than it was in 2015 so they'll want to get as many people in as possible? The only advantage from reducing the capacity and then selling out is it looks better for the festival. If they go down this road (and let's say sell out a month in advance) then they'll probably keep releasing tickets in small batches.

Nice to see them giving some clarification on the plans, although I didn't see the removal of the Wablief? coming. It's clear they've spent a lot of time planning the scheduling and I like the idea of having different genres across some of the stages. They obviously want the old Shelter crowd to buy day tickets for Saturday and Thursday is aimed at a younger demographic with all the urban acts. Remember a local friend telling me a few years ago that he'd heard they were reducing the number of combi's as they make more money from day tickets. Perhaps they're pushing this strategy even more now?

Love the breakdown of the Castello line up - I'll be in there loads over the weekend! Booth and Boiler both looking very decent but Dance Hall is once again a bit hit and miss for me. Probably only going to see Cypress Hill on the Main and there's currently only a few bands I want to watch on the other stages. Need to do some more research but, based on previous years, there's still quite a few gaps to fill across all three days. Interesting that they mention these changes will give bands 'more time and space' - perhaps they'll reduce the number playing but give them longer sets?

[arcuse]

11 hours ago, Semprini said:

Think it's worth remembering that these changes just bring the festival back to where it was for the previous ten years prior to 2016 (8 stages and likely similar size terrain). The capacity during that time has remained pretty constant, around 65,000 per day. They didn't increase it last year because they added two extra stages so it won't necessarily follow that they'll reduce it this summer because those stages won't be there - it'll just go back to how it was.

Yes, but in 2015/6 they still had the Shelter which had bands that costed a lot (Mastodon, In Flames, Opeth etc) now they're going to replace that with a larger Booth which will contain smaller and thus cheaper Bands. As said above, the total budget this year is 30% lower. Do you know how much that is? I mean if PKP spends in total around 10M on their line up, that'd mean that it is now 7M, that is a big difference and the tickets didn't change price either.

They'll just attract the same people (kids from 16-25) as core minus the people who are into punk/metal and a lot of older (30+) people who think this line up is getting a bit to much filled with DJs (3/8 stages). It's a dumb solution in my opinion to kill those 2 stages for 2 other stages who will have cheap DJs and cheaper bands/artists but will attract the same audience as their core, so it adds up to nothing.

They're now 2/3 to sell out but I honestly don't think they'll sell out and they've being saying for months now that day tickets are about to sell out or something so idk what's up with that. 

I changed up the clashfinder again with Marquee and Club against each other and the artists as it's said on the website, only thing is that I think Bear's Den isn't a sub. I don't think their Arena show is sold out yet is it? I mean they've been doing a lot of club shows yes (Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels) but compare Bear's Den to London Grammar or even Chance The Rapper.. I mean  

[Stef_P82]

Honestly gutted about the Shelter, though we saw it coming. Was one of the reasons why I kept coming to Pukkelpop (been going since 98 or so). Already have my ticket and enough interesting bands to see, but will probably make me reconsider if I will keep on going in the next few years. 

[Trufflehound]

I actually think dropping the Wablief?! is a good idea. A lot of foreign visitors (and Belgians only interested in the 'name' acts) dismissed it as a Belgian-only ghetto for little bands no one outside their own families and friends has heard of. Spreading the up-and-coming Belgian acts across the other stages will give them better exposure to a bigger (international) audience.

And I agree, the Lift should go where the Wablief?! was last year (and the Club before that) as a kind of 'Club-light'.

And I think the Booth (or the Castello) will move to where the Shelter was last year, to give people a bit more breathing space in the "dance zone".

Edited May 11, 2017 by Trufflehound

[gigi21]

Do you think we already got the final PKP 17 lineup or we can still have some surprises?

[DDave]

15 minutes ago, gigi21 said:

Do you think we already got the final PKP 17 lineup or we can still have some surprises?

The line up's not finished yet/ as for surprises ...It's Pukkelpop, you really never know but unlikely I think. Possibly Will Smith but I don't hold out much hope tbh given the last 2 announcements. 

Edited May 11, 2017 by DiscothequeDave

[gigi21]

5 minutes ago, DiscothequeDave said:

The line up's not finished yet/ as for surprises ...It's Pukkelpop, you really never know but unlikely I think. Possibly Will Smith but I don't hold out much hope tbh given the last 2 announcements. 

Me too. And the fact that they wrote "Timetable to follow soon!" clearly means that the lineup is almost complete.
Anyway, there are many interesting names and I will enjoy the festival this year too.

[DaveRSV4]

Last year we had about 260 artists. Killing the Shelter- and Wablief-tents, which had about 50 names together spread out over 3 days, would leave us with 210 names this year. Considering we now have got 165, would mean there are still in between 40-50 names to be announced. However, this will be (al lot) less because Pukkelpop and Chokri already said that this year they'll give extra time (longer setlists) to the artists. If that would mean they put one artist per day less on every stage, that would leave us with about 20/25 names left.

[bluenova]

1 hour ago, DaveRSV4 said:

Pukkelpop and Chokri already said that this year they'll give extra time (longer setlists) to the artists. 

Do you think they meant that the two stages that are going had slightly shorter sets, so the extra time comes from them being on the bigger stage? It looks that way from the Clashfinder, maybe 5-10 minutes or so less than bands on similar times elsewhere, which would suggest you might still have 40-50 to come.

[arcuse]

I counted 163 announced so far and 47 open spots on my clashfinder which would leave us at exactly 210. I don't think it's gonna happen that every band or artist gets atleast an hour, because that doesn't seem to logical to me but I could change the clashfinder to that for a while and see if it looks good. idk

[DDave]

https://www.pukkelpop.be/en/about/

'Almost 200 current musical sensations, living legends and visionary alternative artists all come to perform on one of our many stages'. 

[arcuse]

There ya go, I edited that every artist/band has atleast 50". I put it so that Mainstage and Lift never clash and that Marquee and Club never clash. I went from 47 open spots to 42 with this but looking at the Boiler, we still need a lot of those names (or they could just get longer set times, 1u15 instead of 1h which could make them book even less artists.)

https:///s/pkp2017

Edited May 12, 2017 by arcuse

[LemonLineLord]

After much debating,my group has decided to head to PKP over Lowlands. We have booked our flights to Brussels airport in Zaventem. I know the PKP website recommends to get a train to Leuven and then one to either Kiewit or Hasselt. Does anyone know if this is necessarily the easiest way of getting to the festival from that airport? Thanks.

[alan_ts]

27 minutes ago, LemonLineLord said:

After much debating,my group has decided to head to PKP over Lowlands. We have booked our flights to Brussels airport in Zaventem. I know the PKP website recommends to get a train to Leuven and then one to either Kiewit or Hasselt. Does anyone know if this is necessarily the easiest way of getting to the festival from that airport? Thanks.

I think I took a direct Brussel-Hasselt but last time I was there was in 2013.

Remember that all trains in Belgium are included in the price of combiticket.

 

edit: sorry, it was 2011, in 2013 I travelled by car.

Edited May 20, 2017 by alan_ts

[ThijsDB]

3 hours ago, LemonLineLord said:

After much debating,my group has decided to head to PKP over Lowlands. We have booked our flights to Brussels airport in Zaventem. I know the PKP website recommends to get a train to Leuven and then one to either Kiewit or Hasselt. Does anyone know if this is necessarily the easiest way of getting to the festival from that airport? Thanks.

In order to get to PKP, you will always have to take a train to Hasselt and all those trains pass Leuven so the answer to your question is yes. If you need more help with the trains, you can always send me a pm, I know it can be quite confusing if you're not from Belgium haha