Pukkelpop 2023

[DDave]

23 hours ago, Trufflehound said:

Just a heads up for any craft beer lovers who are staying on the Pukkelpop campsites (or anywhere else for that matter), and who want something a bit different from the standard cans of Jupiler and Maes pils.

From Thursday to Sunday, the Hop Hemel microbrewery in Hasselt is filling takeaway cans to order ("crowlers") from the 12 taps in its taproom. Don't know what's on tap at the moment (I'll find out on Wednesday evening), but I'm confident it will be more exciting than industrial pilsner... (granted, it will cost you a little bit more as well...)

The taproom is dead easy to find. It's 200m from the station in Hasselt, on the same street as you head towards the town centre.

https://hophemel.be/taproom

Cristal has replaced Maes this year. 

[Trufflehound]

9 minutes ago, DDave said:

Cristal has replaced Maes this year. 

I'd describe that as a 'sideways' step! Both made to a mediocre standard (i.e. competent, but a bit boring) by the same brewer (Alken-Maes), and with the same ultimate owners (Carlsberg and Heineken jointly)

[Trufflehound]

28 minutes ago, dimedebeth said:

Hey everyone!

Last minute questions, I don't know if this has been discussed already (sorry if it has 😅)

I'll be arriving there by car, and I've seen all the parking areas that PKP has, and the price (I believe it was 22€ 4 days)

My question is: do you guys know if around the festival, in the neighbourhood, am I allowed to park? I'm ok with walking a little, or  maybe park around the Hasselt station. Maybe someone can enlight me on this, or you can tell me your experiences on arriving by car.

 

My other question is: will there be a shuttle from Hasselt to the festival area non-stop? Will I be able to go to Hasselt on the morning or so to buy food or whatever, or there won't be any transport for that?

 

Thank you guys! 

I doubt you'll be able to park for free near the festival site. They close off most of the side roads in the area and only residents are allowed through.

Most of the street parking in Hasselt (within the outer ring, but outside the inner ring) is designated "Blue Zone", which means you can only park (for free) for 2 hours max, except on Sundays or if you have a residents' permit. It's a €25 per day fine if you ignore that. Parking inside the inner ring is pay per hour, so much more expensive. There are park 'n' ride parks on the outskirts of Hasselt that are (I think) free, but then you've got the hassle of an extra bus ride just to get into Hasselt.

Cheapest secure parking garage near Hasselt city centre is Blauwe Boulevard, which is about a 10-minute walk from the station. It's huge and (I think) still costs €10 per day. We use it because we stay in a hotel in town, but if the festival parking is "only" €22 for 4 days I'd recommend you take that option if camping.

There are shuttle buses between the festival site and Hasselt station from early until late each day, so easy to get into the city. Besides that, it's only a 40-minute walk from the site to the city centre.

 

[Name taken]

It’s promising to be a very hot weekend ☀️

Take care!

 

 

[Otto77]

Behind the little church in the Vijversstraat there's a little grocery called 't Kiwi'tje and they have everything you need in drinks and food.

[VCF]

Friday

13H25 Royel Otis (Lift)
14H20 Froukje (Main)
15H25 Nessa Barrett or Hannah Grae (Marquee/Lift)
16H30 Ethel Cain (Club)
17H35 Brutus or The Aces (Marquee/Lift)
18H35 TV Girl (Club)
19H45 M83 (Marquee)
21H55 Boygenius (Marquee)
23H00 Billie Eilish (Main)
00H35 Moderat or ascendant vierge (Marquee/Lift)

Saturday

12H20 Compact Disk Dummies (Main)
14H50 Bombay Bicycle Club (Marquee)
15H40 RORI (Dance Hall)
16H35 Jessie Ware (Marquee)
17H35 Turnstile or MUNA (Main/Club)
18H35 Nothing But Thieves (Main)
19H35 Limp Bizkit (Main)
20H35 Nia Archives (Lift)
21H45 Luude (Boiler)
23H40 Angèle (Main)
00H45 2ManyDjs and/or BICEP (Marquee/Dance Hall)

Sunday

12H20 Kids with Buns (Club)
13H10 Giant Rooks (Marquee)
14H05 Zwangere Guy (Main)
15H00 Mother Mother (Marquee)
17H00 girl in red (Marquee)
18H05 Macklemore (Main)
19H10 King Gizzard or Loyle Carner (Marquee/Dance Hall)
20H15 Florence and the Machine (Main)
21H35 Foals (Marquee)
22H40 The Killers (Main)

Provisional schedule for the weekend but I’m sure it will change a lot.

Enjoy all!

Edited August 15, 2023 by VCF

[Death By Sexy 2.0]

Who wants a meeting?

[Death By Sexy 2.0]

*Donderdag*

 

Sophie Straat (Club 19u00-19u50)

 

blackwave. (Dance Hall 20u15-21u05)

 

Roefke (Boiler 21u30)

 

Black Box Revelation (Dance Hall 21u40-22u40)

 

The Subs (Dance Hall 23u15-01u30)

 

 

*Vrijdag*

 

Elmer (Club 11u50-12u30)

 

Only The Poets (Main Stage 12u35-13u20)

 

Zulu (Backyard 13u25-14u15) +

 

Ploegendienst (Club 14u30-15u15) +

 

Rolo Tomassi (Backyard 15u30-16u20) +

 

Ethel Cain (Club (16u30-17u20)

 

Brutus (Marquee 17u35-18u35) vs. Bob Vylan (Backyard 17u40-18u30) vs. The Aces (Lift 17u40-18u30)

 

TV Girl (Club 18u35-19u25)

 

Piri (Lift 19u50-20u30) +

 

DJ Heartstring (Booth 20u00-22u00)

 

boygenius (Marquee 21u55-22u55) vs. Dorian Electra (21u50-22u50)

 

Altin Gun (Club 23u25-00u25)

 

ascendant Vierge (Lift 00u35-01u35) ++

 

 

*Zaterdag*

 

Compact Disk Dummies (Main Stage 12u20-13u00)

 

Peuk (Club 12u40-13u20)

 

Tarkastaja/Clouseau (Marquee 13u00-14u00)

 

Wunderhorse (Club 14u00-14u50)

 

Nabihah Iqbal (Lift 14u50-15u40)

 

Joost (Main Stage 15u45-16u45)

 

Joe Unknow (Lift 16u45-17u35)

 

Turnstile (Main Stage 17u35-18u35) +++

 

Alice Longyu Gao (Backyard (18u40-19u30) +

 

Limp Bizkit (Main Stage 19u35-20u35) vs. Amyl and the Sniffers (Club 19u35-20u35)

 

High Vis (Backyard 20u35-21u35) ++

 

Aquarian/Sherelle (Booth 21u40-22u20)

 

Two Shell (Lift 22u35-23u35)

 

Osees (Club 23u35-00u35) +

 

2manydj’s (Marquee 00u45-02u00) +

 

Waltur B2B Lolita (Booth 02u00-04u00)

 

 

*Zondag* 

 

Scowl (Backyard 13u10-14u00)

 

Destroy Boys (Backyard 15u00-15u50) +

 

Dropkick Murphy’s (Main Stage 15u55-16u55)

 

KennyHoopla (Backyard 17u05-17u55) +

 

VTSS (Boiler 18u00-19u00)

 

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Marquee 19u10-20u10) ++

 

Florence + The Machine (Main Stage 20u15-21u30)

 

 Bonobo (Dance Hall 21u35-22u35) vs. Beartooth (21u35-22u35)

 

Teki Latex (Booth 23u00-00u00)

[Liliam]

On 7/25/2023 at 3:22 PM, Chimme said:

There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers 🙂

Have you bought a day ticket for Friday?

Don't forget to join the party on Thursday then. The Main Stage area will not be open to the public yet, but the other half of the site will give you a great idea of what to expect of Pukkelpop.

Normally you can easily get close to the barriers for any concert, but Billie in 2019 generated a huge crowd at 3 PM, so the crowd will probably be even bigger this year, now that she is headlining. The other bands playing before her should be right up your alley too, though. So if you really want to be all the way up front for the Biliie concert, just get there a few hours beforehand. 

I don't know how old you are, but Pukkelpop is probably the best festival in the world for young people and also one of the best organized festivals of all. It's safe and fun and you will have an excellent time. Enjoy!

PS The grounds usually open at 11 AM and close at 4 AM. If you get your wristband on Thursday, you can easily access the festival area on Friday without queuing too much. 

 

 

A bit late but i just want to say i really appreciate your response. It's very detailed and helpful:) Yeah i  have a Friday ticket. It'd be lovely to come in Thursday even though I'm not really interested in any particular performance on that day. The thing is I'm staying in Brussels (since Thursday morning) and a ride to the festival will be taking me almost 2h by train so I'm not sure if going there for like 2h and then coming back to the hotel makes much sense. What do you think?

[Semprini]

1 hour ago, Liliam said:

A bit late but i just want to say i really appreciate your response. It's very detailed and helpful:) Yeah i  have a Friday ticket. It'd be lovely to come in Thursday even though I'm not really interested in any particular performance on that day. The thing is I'm staying in Brussels (since Thursday morning) and a ride to the festival will be taking me almost 2h by train so I'm not sure if going there for like 2h and then coming back to the hotel makes much sense. What do you think?

If there's nothing you're really interested in seeing on Thursday then I probably wouldn't bother to travel down. The pre-party is good fun but it gets really busy so I don't tend to stay for more than an hour or two. Might make a bit more of a night of it this time as want to see the Subs, but the big difference with yourself is that my hotel is only 20 minutes down the road. Get there for 12/1pm on Friday and have the full day to enjoy the whole festival!

Tucked away in the middle of the info email they sent today is that each ticket comes with 4 free bus journeys. It doesn't really say whether that includes the shuttle between Hasselt and the festival but it would seem to imply that? Not sure how well they'll be able to police that at 2am when everyone piles on but hopefully it won't be an issue. We usually get the train in each day, mainly because it takes 5 mins compared to about 45 on the bus, but that was when it had to go round by the other campsite first. We'll get the bus in on Thursday evening to see what the journey is like and we'll also find out what the deal is with tickets at the same time.

For info, you have to download the tickets in advance using the unique code on the festival ticket. I got the De Lijn app and it was easy to add the tickets to my account.

[Trufflehound]

10 hours ago, Semprini said:

Tucked away in the middle of the info email they sent today is that each ticket comes with 4 free bus journeys. It doesn't really say whether that includes the shuttle between Hasselt and the festival but it would seem to imply that? Not sure how well they'll be able to police that at 2am when everyone piles on but hopefully it won't be an issue.

 

Shuttle buses to/from Hasselt station are free as they always have been. It's in the How to Get There page of the website, under Train:

"Hasselt train station: free festival shuttles to the festival ground and camping grounds are available and are also included in your festival ticket. "

 

https://www.pukkelpop.be/en/info/transport/

[Semprini]

3 hours ago, Trufflehound said:

Shuttle buses to/from Hasselt station are free as they always have been. It's in the How to Get There page of the website, under Train:

"Hasselt train station: free festival shuttles to the festival ground and camping grounds are available and are also included in your festival ticket. "

 

https://www.pukkelpop.be/en/info/transport/

Good spot, someone on Festileaks has also confirmed that shuttle buses will be free after getting a reply from the festival. It looks like the bus drop off and pick up is a bit further away from the site as well, just south of the train station but on the opposite side.

I know you haven't got too far to go @Trufflehound but safe travels this evening and look forward to meeting up tomorrow night!

[Chimme]

16 hours ago, Liliam said:

A bit late but i just want to say i really appreciate your response. It's very detailed and helpful:) Yeah i  have a Friday ticket. It'd be lovely to come in Thursday even though I'm not really interested in any particular performance on that day. The thing is I'm staying in Brussels (since Thursday morning) and a ride to the festival will be taking me almost 2h by train so I'm not sure if going there for like 2h and then coming back to the hotel makes much sense. What do you think?

Next time, buy yourself a camping ticket, much easier 🙂

If you're staying in Brussels, you definitely should NOT go the party on Thursday, that would be a waste of time in my opinion. You'd better do some nice things in Brussels!

Why Brussels btw? For me, as a Belgian, it sounds a bit like staying in London when you're attending Glastonbury 🙂

 

 

[Liliam]

8 minutes ago, Chimme said:

Next time, buy yourself a camping ticket, much easier 🙂

If you're staying in Brussels, you definitely should NOT go the party on Thursday, that would be a waste of time in my opinion. You'd better do some nice things in Brussels!

Why Brussels btw? For me, as a Belgian, it sounds a bit like staying in London when you're attending Glastonbury 🙂

 

 

I took interest in Pukkelpop too late and the only hotels close i could find were either very overpriced or without access to public transport

[dimedebeth]

On 8/15/2023 at 10:32 AM, Trufflehound said:

I doubt you'll be able to park for free near the festival site. They close off most of the side roads in the area and only residents are allowed through.

Most of the street parking in Hasselt (within the outer ring, but outside the inner ring) is designated "Blue Zone", which means you can only park (for free) for 2 hours max, except on Sundays or if you have a residents' permit. It's a €25 per day fine if you ignore that. Parking inside the inner ring is pay per hour, so much more expensive. There are park 'n' ride parks on the outskirts of Hasselt that are (I think) free, but then you've got the hassle of an extra bus ride just to get into Hasselt.

Cheapest secure parking garage near Hasselt city centre is Blauwe Boulevard, which is about a 10-minute walk from the station. It's huge and (I think) still costs €10 per day. We use it because we stay in a hotel in town, but if the festival parking is "only" €22 for 4 days I'd recommend you take that option if camping.

There are shuttle buses between the festival site and Hasselt station from early until late each day, so easy to get into the city. Besides that, it's only a 40-minute walk from the site to the city centre.

 

Thanks for the info! 

After seeing that Parking 10 is a 40 minute walk away from the Camping Site, we have decided to leave the car elsewhere. It will be complicated to walk that long with all the camping gear 😵‍💫

 

I've seen that theres a Carrefour Hipermarket outside Hasselt ring, and there's a bus that takes you to the station, so maybe we will leave the car there, take the bus, and then take the free shuttle one from the station to the camping site. 

I've also seen a lot of people complaining about the distances from the parkings to the camping and festival sites, so I thought maybe this info was useful to anyone!

There's also an IKEA parking, so you can also take the bus from there and then take another one to the festival site. 

Thanks again!

[DDave]

Safe travels to everyone going to Pukkelpop over the next couple of days. It's not to be for us this year, which is something I'll no doubt regret - Have a great time everyone!

Forgot to mention, Rooms at the hostel are available to book for next years dates on booking.com (15th-19th August) with free cancellation as an option.

[Death By Sexy 2.0]

Have a great festival!

[johnybegood]

Finally, my wife and me sold our tickets in the exchage service and decided to organize a travel with our little daughter who had some medical issues last summer, and we thought that she deserved it, so instead of going to Pukkelpop we are going to Legoland in Germany... hehehe. 

I hope that 2024 will be our 10th Pukkelpop after going every year from 2009 to 2017. We are looking forward to it.

I hope that all you you will have a great festival experience and I will wait for all of you in the 2024 thread.

[WFD]

We're in, pre pitched took a bit of finding but all good now. Probably going to head into town tonight rather than go in for the party but liking the set up so far. If anyone spots a too-old indie dad with an obscure band tshirt and a daughter who looks like Wednesday Adams, feel free to say hi!

[DDave]

Wunderhorse have cancelled for Lowlands, no news on Pukkelpop yet

Edit - they've cancelled

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by DDave

[Liliam]

I don’t know if it was asked already but are there any big lockers close to the festival? Or is there someone by car who have a lot of space? I can pay of course, I'm just very desperate cause I had to end up going with a suitcase

[WFD]

There are lockers inside the campsite but not big enough for a suitcase. Hasselt Station may have lockers and then get the shuttle bus to the festival site?

[Semprini]

Pre party was decent but very crowded at times. Watched a bit of the Subs from in front of the screen and they were really good. Would have stayed for longer but we’d been travelling for quite a bit of the day so made the sensible decision to head back at about half 12. Boiler is really impressive but was rammed so didn’t bother to go in too far. 
 

Shuttle bus takes 8 mins which is a massive improvement on previous years. Granted you do have to walk a bit further but was about 25 mins all in from walking out the gates and getting to our room last night. 
 

Saw a tweet from Sherelle (posted yesterday afternoon) saying she was mugged in Brussels and had lost ‘everything’. She was asking people to send her music so could be a chance she doesn’t make it either. 

[Semprini]

18 hours ago, WFD said:

We're in, pre pitched took a bit of finding but all good now. Probably going to head into town tonight rather than go in for the party but liking the set up so far. If anyone spots a too-old indie dad with an obscure band tshirt and a daughter who looks like Wednesday Adams, feel free to say hi!

There’s a group of us over from the UK (all 45+ except my 17 year old son) so if you fancy meeting up for a beer let me know?

[WFD]

44 minutes ago, Semprini said:

There’s a group of us over from the UK (all 45+ except my 17 year old son) so if you fancy meeting up for a beer let me know?

Cheers, have messaged you