Graspop festival in Belgium - anyone going?

byrne_baby_byrn

Hi guys,

Looking to head to the Graspop festival but I'm not sure of the best way to get there. The lineup looks great and the tickets are dirt cheap - http://www.graspop.be/pages/extra/bands.php

Anyone been there before? Just looking to see if there's any gotchas or anything before I book the tickets.

Thanks lads (and lassies)

Jay

Oral Slang

Really easy to get there, been there about 4 times before & that was before they included trains in Belgium into the price of your ticket.. Can't decide whether to go this year, was all set to go a while back, but not enough bands announced as yet that will sway me. Loads of irish usually go though, so ya wont be alone..

I usually fly to Charleroi, which I always found handy enough - about 3 hours travel, but more recently people have been flying to Eindhoven. Not sure how long it takes from there though!

byrne_baby_byrn

Oral Slang wrote:

Really easy to get there, been there about 4 times before & that was before they included trains in Belgium into the price of your ticket.. Can't decide whether to go this year, was all set to go a while back, but not enough bands announced as yet that will sway me. Loads of irish usually go though, so ya wont be alone..

I usually fly to Charleroi, which I always found handy enough - about 3 hours travel, but more recently people have been flying to Eindhoven. Not sure how long it takes from there though!

Thanks Oral Slang. The info on the website is a bit inconsistant, but it looks like the campsite will be open on the Thursday to foreign campers. Looks like the Eindhoven shuttle bus route might be the best way alright.

I'm normally used to driving over to Download and bringing a boot-full of beer. Since we'll be flying, is there beer on sale in the campsite? Presume so. Or is there any other route to getting a few cans to have around the campsite?

Thanks.

Oral Slang

No, beer is on sale inside the venue in plastic cups or you can buy it in the local town. Local houses sell drink too, but I'm not sure if many of them sell alcohol or just cold drinks. We usually buy all of our beer in Dessel, before we get on the free shuttle to the campsite. Gets pretty warm by the end though. TBH, I never end up drinking half of it. Spend most of the time in the venue & if you can stay awake there's a beer tent thats open all night as far as i know.

thebourke

being there 3 times..class festival ..very well organised..and cheaper than any festival in ireland..i normally fly to charleroi...stay in antwerp the night before the festival at a hostel called the witches caldron (den henkensel)..check it out ..class hostel...

Oral Slang

So, who's going to this?

I'm really looking forward to it now. Wasn't at the beginning due to the fact that I didn't like that many of the bands playing, but because of that I investigated a few bands I'd never heard before and now have Friday & Sunday pretty much wrapped up (Saturday is still gappy)!

Only things that are annoying me are some of the clashes:

Blind Guardian v Therion - 2 of the main bands I wanted to see. Blind Guardian will have to miss out as I saw Therion in Jan & will be seeing them again in September, but still!
Celtic Frost v Pain of Salvation (POS win, I think?)
Joe Satriani v Type O Negative (Type O win)
Moonsorrow v Cynic (not sure yet)

Fozzy

That's a great line-up, I'd love to be going to this. It's a crime that Ozzy's headlining yet Heaven and Hell are further down the list though!

I think you're making the right choices there Oral Slang, I'd say go to Cynic

Oral Slang

Yeah might do or else watch a bit of both!
Only heard Moonsorrow over the last few days though & I really like them.. Marquee 1 has a really good line-up that whole day, so i'll be spending a large chunk of my time there..
Really looking forward to it now, this time 2 weeks I'll be preparing for Maiden!

Evolute

byrne_baby_byrn wrote:

Hi guys,

Looking to head to the Graspop festival but I'm not sure of the best way to get there. The lineup looks great and the tickets are dirt cheap - http://www.graspop.be/pages/extra/bands.php

Anyone been there before? Just looking to see if there's any gotchas or anything before I book the tickets.

Thanks lads (and lassies)

Jay

Ill be going for the first time but itll be savage hehe im going over the night before the fest starts but we got the go ahead to stay in the campsite the night before so its gonna be absolutely savage. also the plane is gonna be packed full a festival peeps so its gonna be a deadly laugh

Oral Slang

Right only 2 days to go, starting to get excited..

I have to travel from Charleroi to Eindhoven on my own on Thursday to meet some friends - starting to get concerned about what time I'm gonna get there though - get into Charleroi at 18.30 or something like that & it looks like I won't get to Eindhoven til 22.30 or 23.00.
Does anyone know the best way to do this - i.e. which train station to head to from the airport?

honru

Get the train to Antwerp from Charleroi. Not sure if there's a direct route, you might have to change at Brussels.

I don't know if you can do this at Charleroi, but at Antwerp you should be able to buy a ticket to Eindhoven. Once your ticket is purchased they will give you an itinerary of where you need go, where to change, etc. Since you are going to the Netherlands, you'll have to travel to Roosendaal and change from there.

Evolute

Anyone flying into Eindhoven tomorrow??