The four-day Pukkelpop music festival kicks off today on the greener-than-usual terrain in the town of Kiewit (Limburg province).
While a number of Belgium's larger festivals – such as Rock Werchter and Tomorrowland – have had bad luck with the weather, it looks like Pukkelpop will be treated to sunny skies this year. Due to the abundant rainfall in recent weeks, however, the grass on the festival site is much taller than usual.
"Isn't it great? It rained so heavily in previous years that half of the festival grounds became mud. Now, it is all green," festival organiser Chokri Mahassine told Belga News Agency. "Everything is currently cordoned off so no vehicles can drive on the site and we have a nice festival area."
At this year's edition, all the familiar stages are making their return, even if the Boiler Room tent is a bit smaller than usual. "But we have added two smaller tents," said spokesperson Frederik Luyten. "In this way, we are creating a bit more openness to turn it into a dance temple again. In its total capacity, it can hold between 12,000 to 15,000 people."
E-rena
This year, the Limburg festival is also going virtual with an E-rena, which Luyten called "a good way to connect" with very young festival audiences. "Pukkelpop is a youth festival anyway, so it makes sense for us to experiment with this. We can also reach the pre-Pukkelpop crowd this way, as both Gen Z and Gen Alpha are very much interested."
The organisation has also created the Pukkelpop festival in the virtual world of Roblox. The Limburg artist ISE will perform both virtually and physically in the new E-rena on Saturday. Besides ISE's performance, the E-rena will also feature gaming, talks, e-sports, podcasts, AI experiments, ChatGPT and 'e-music'.
As forecasts show temperatures of around 30°C over the festival weekend, the organisers are deploying misters at the venue, and sunscreen will also be offered free of charge to the Pukkelpop crowd. Starting this year, work is also being done on the general wellbeing of festival goers.
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"We have been working on a health and safety policy under the slogan 'We care a lot'," said Health and Safety Coordinator at the festival, Lena Boons. "It is a project with several festivals in which we are working on prevention and sensitisation and want to motivate people to, for example, drink enough water and not drive under the influence."
At the prevention booth, various partners will collaborate to prevent drug and alcohol abuse, as well as transgressive and sexually inappropriate behaviour. "People can get information on those topics here, and free condoms, earplugs and water will also be handed out."
The festival starts on Thursday, with performances by the likes of Billie Eilish, Yungblud, Years & Years, Angèle, Anne-Marie, Limp Bizkit, The Killers, Florence + The Machine, and dozens more artists programmed on the eight different stages until Sunday night.
