Pukkelpop 2011

Jello

Really can't believe that, very sad news

--LOS--

hope all the boardsies are ok, its terrible when events like this get marred by tragedy, esp after what happened with the german festival last year.

Tubsandtiles

Feck sake Hope all boardsies are ok, sad to hear about the three people killed

Grid.

Awful news, hope anyone from boards are ok....R.I.P to those that lost their lives..:(

opr

Some scary footage around youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06pkA1cjedk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-lgzwggWfk

Opr

Dicksboro_man

no lads, THAT is scary! have 2 friends of my own at it, thank god they're safe..

0:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i52kwAzlOwU

Furious-Red

Its just scary and crazy what happened and you cant blame anyone. I heard a 4th person died in hospital(not sure if it is true though)

Wonder will they call off the festival? I no if i was over there id be nearly trying to get back to brussels and fly out asap unless the weather gets better

Dicksboro_man

As far as i know the festival will be going ahead but again, it depends on if they'll manage to repair the 3 stages and drain the fields overnight..

Greenman

I live close by and never saw so many ambulances charging down the motorway in my life.

honru

It's official: the whole festival has been called off. There must have been quite some damage to the festival site and I can image people's spirits are down after what happened yesterday. The solid organisation has come in to play as the Grenslandhallen complex in Hasselt has been opened to house campers. Might be a bit of a nightmare for the Irish contingent to get home.

Strangely enough the last time I went to Pukkelpop in 2009, on the first day of the festival at around the same time in the evening when Deftones were playing, there was a very eerie storm with thunder and all. Besides that I had been to Pukkelpop three times previously and the weather was usually fantastic; it's unusual to see the place looking so water-logged. That video of the trees breaking through the canvas of the tent is shocking stuff.

Hope everyone gets home safe and sound, and that this incident doesn't mark the end of a great festival.

NothingMan

Looks like the death toll has risen to 5 now. It's really scary stuff and I'm glad all my friends are ok. The only reason I'm not there is because I couldn't afford it a few months ago when they were booking. Crazy.

The death toll at the Pukkelpop music festival in Belgium, hit by a sudden violent storm, has now risen to five, say local officials.
Staging collapsed, giant screens fell, tents were flattened and trees were uprooted in the space of minutes after the storm struck.
Dozens more people were hurt, several seriously.
Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme has sent his condolences to the families of the victims.
Reports say organisers have now decided to cancel the rest of the event.
"During the night, the fifth festival-goer died in hospital. I think that the organisation of Pukkelpop rightly took the courageous decision to stop the festival," Hasselt mayor Hilde Claes was quoted as saying on the website of De Standaard newspaper.
'End of the world' About 60,000 people were believed to be at the event, one of Europe's largest outdoor festivals, when the storm hit. Headline acts this year were set to include Eminem, Foo Fighters and the Ting Tings.
Within 10 minutes, the storm turned the festival site into a scene of mud and destruction
"The sky suddenly turned pitch black and we took shelter waiting for the rain," said festival-goer Catherine Blaise, according to Le Soir newspaper.
"Then suddenly, there was a downpour. The wind blew violently. There were hailstones bigger than a centimetre falling... Trees toppled over.
"It was unbelievable, the end of the world," she said.
Within 10 minutes, the storm had turned the festival site into a scene of mud and destruction, reports said.
More than 20 ambulances raced to and from the site near Hasselt, some 50 miles (80km) east of Brussels. More-lightly injured people were being treated at a local sports complex.
Many festival-goers were inside tents which collapsed when the storm hit.

"It was mass panic," Laura Elegeert, 17, told AP news agency.
"People were trying to get out of this tent that collapsed by using their pocket knives and cutting holes in the fabric."
Two cranes were brought in to try to lift the largest tent late on Thursday - which collapsed as the band Smith Westerns was playing - but the festival grounds appeared to be too swamped to allow them access, AP said.
It was the second consecutive year of tragedy for Pukkelpop. Last year, lead singer of the group Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, Charles Haddon, committed suicide at the event.
Five people were killed last week at a festival in the US state of Indiana, when a stage collapsed in high winds.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14586001

Pigwidgeon

I hope everyone is ok. We're booked into a hotel in Brussels now. That was unbelievable, I've never seen anything like it.

Half the boiler room collapsed, so did the big pukkelpop sign just inside the entrance, the petit bazar tent had a hole in it. I think there was more too. Rivers knee deep everywhere. We got a bus to Hasselt last night where they were great, several people asked if we wanted to stay in their house, we were given water and foil blankets and at about 12 they open a big hall opposite the train station where we slept. Thankfully we were inside as there was another storm during the night.

It was all very surreal and hasn't quite sunk in yet.

Mushy

Pigwidgeon wrote: »

I hope everyone is ok. We're booked into a hotel in Brussels now. That was unbelievable, I've never seen anything like it.

Half the boiler room collapsed, so did the big pukkelpop sign just inside the entrance, the petit bazar tent had a hole in it. I think there was more too. Rivers knee deep everywhere. We got a bus to Hasselt last night where they were great, several people asked if we wanted to stay in their house, we were given water and foil blankets and at about 12 they open a big hall opposite the train station where we slept. Thankfully we were inside as there was another storm during the night.

It was all very surreal and hasn't quite sunk in yet.

Good to hear ye be ok. Seems like everyone pulled together to help each other too which is great to hear.

languagenerd

One of the scariest ten minutes of my life!!! Storm just came out of nowhere, it had been scorching all day and suddenly it started raining like crazy. I have never seen wind like that, more like a tornado than a thunder storm.

I was in The Marquee, right beside the stage that fell, I thought ours was gonna go too, it was shaking so badly. And then it was all over within ten/fifteen minutes!! The ground was completely waterlogged after that, so glad we had brought wellies!

Getting back to Brussels was a challenge - a tree fell on the line at Kiewit so we had to walk 6km in the dark to try and find another station, and no-one knew what was going on... Tents completely flooded, had to leave them behind.

Could have been so much worse though, was shocked to hear people had died there. RIP.

Jelle1880

Seen the images, truly shocking to see that happen.

And then there's people on the Pukkelpop website complaining about the festival being cancelled, 'because they want to see Eminem', horrible people.

sweetie

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

It's official: the whole festival has been called off. There must have been quite some damage to the festival site and I can image people's spirits are down after what happened yesterday. The solid organisation has come in to play as the Grenslandhallen complex in Hasselt has been opened to house campers. Might be a bit of a nightmare for the Irish contingent to get home.

Strangely enough the last time I went to Pukkelpop in 2009, on the first day of the festival at around the same time in the evening when Deftones were playing, there was a very eerie storm with thunder and all. Besides that I had been to Pukkelpop three times previously and the weather was usually fantastic; it's unusual to see the place looking so water-logged. That video of the trees breaking through the canvas of the tent is shocking stuff.

Hope everyone gets home safe and sound, and that this incident doesn't mark the end of a great festival.

I was there for that - no jacket, lovely weather and boom, downpour.
Such a tragedy, RIP.

Furious-Red

Glad to see some of the boardsies got out safe. I was watching a video of Skunk Anansie playing and i was thinking how could it have been dark when they were playing since they were on during the day but then i realised it was the massive storm and the amount of debris flying around the place it looked crazy.


Good to hear that all the locals were helping out people, nice thing to hear

Pukkelpop is in deep mourning. We truly sympathise with the families and friends of the victims.

Words are not enough. We have struggled with the decision to continue the festival. Therefore we have decided to cancel Pukkelpop 2011.

What has happened is very exceptional and could not have been predicted. We are deeply moved by all the spontaneous support the festival goers and the organisation have received.


We call on all Pukkelpoppers to return home calmly. Extra buses and trains have been organised to bring everybody home.

Undoubtedly many of you have many practical questions. That is why we ask you to direct them to info@pukkelpop.be.

We ask everyone to understand that this decision was extremely difficult to make.

Professey Chin

Well then that went perfectly to plan >_>
We stayed in the campsite last night since we didnt see the point trying to get everything together in the pitch black and rain. Luckily our tents didnt take much of a hit at all(every tent around them was a different issue :pac: )
Ive never seen a storm hit that hard that fast. Nature just seemed to run in and dropkick the area for a laugh.
I got my flight changed so im at one of them interweb kiosks in the airport. I hate airports :mad:

Jelle1880

Belgian media reporting that in 20 minutes they got as much rain as they normally get in a month.

The kind of hail that rained down:



More pictures, click 'Volgende' to scroll through them:

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/8000/planet-watch/photoalbum/detail/1306615/1009880/0/Het-Pukkelpop-drama-in-86-foto-s.dhtml

Just look at those trees, can't imagine what it must have been like.

H8GHOTI

Such sad news.

I remember at Electric Picnic last year there was rain & strong winds on the Sunday night.
But it wasn't even half as bad as this. Really puts it in perspective.

Giruilla

What are foreigners doing who had planned on staying for the weekend? Are there places set up?

NothingMan

My mates have headed to Amsterdam for the weekend.

Fluorescence

We headed back to Brussels since we were staying there a few days either side of the festival anyway. Our parents rang ahead to book us back into the hostel our cases were stored in and we got in around 00:30 after catching the last train from Hasselt to Brussels. It was a close thing too - we were almost sleeping in the train station for the night.

seachto7

Jelle1880 wrote: »

More pictures, click 'Volgende' to scroll through them:

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/8000/planet-watch/photoalbum/detail/1306615/1009880/0/Het-Pukkelpop-drama-in-86-foto-s.dhtml

Just look at those trees, can't imagine what it must have been like.

someone with an Irish flag in photo 58.........

Penfailed

RIP those people

Giruilla

Hope everyone gets home ok

threein99

The videos of it are unbeliveable, the video where Skunk Anansie have to go off stage just as it starts it like something out of the The Day After Tommorow

honru

I know feck all about weather, but can storms like this not be preempted? I watched a news report which included a forecast and it almost looked like two patches of storms combined together just as it passed over Hasselt...

It looks one of those extremely tall trees fell from those two rows of trees in front of the main stage. :eek: And yea, that video of Skunk Anansie on the Main Stage looks like the apocalypse or something.

Professey Chin

Apparently they were known and additional supports & inspections had been carried out and cleared. Doubt they expected that hit

Lia_lia

Giruilla wrote: »

What are foreigners doing who had planned on staying for the weekend? Are there places set up?

Luckily my Dad lives in France so I got a train here.

We were so lucky come to think of it...it was ridiculous. The weather had been fab all day then..boom!

I was sitting on this thing, then it started moving so we all ran off it. Turned around and it had completely torn apart!




Those hailstones were INSANE! People had holes in their backs from them...

flas

crazy really, id say that was very scary... I remember 2 years ago when a few of us were at benicassim when that storm hit, thunder, lightening, stages being blown around the place, but not totally over thank God and a fire sweeping through the fields beside the campsite, it was scary as hell, cant imagine what the hail stones were like!

Jelle1880

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

I know feck all about weather, but can storms like this not be preempted? I watched a news report which included a forecast and it almost looked like two patches of storms combined together just as it passed over Hasselt...

It looks one of those extremely tall trees fell from those two rows of trees in front of the main stage. :eek: And yea, that video of Skunk Anansie on the Main Stage looks like the apocalypse or something.

They knew a storm could come, but nobody could know it would be anything remotely like this.

The death toll has been brought back to 4 apparently, a man who ended up in hospital prior to the storm was mistakenly counted with the Pukkelpop-casualties.

ShortskirtCiara

I have never been so happy to finally be back at home.

We couldn't get over the heat on Thursday that we made a canopy using a spare tent sheet by tieing it to the 3 tents that we had, little did we know that by doing this would cause havoc when the storm actually hit.

I'm still in shock as to how quick it all happened, the rumbles of thunder and lightening came at such a pace and then the rain, wind and massive hailstones. Never experienced anything like it in my life and never have I feared for my life ever like this before.

I am actually so thankful that we arrived later on the Wednesday as we were knowhere near trees or watch towers etc that could have potentially fallen on us and even more so that we went into Hasselt when we did that day to stock up on supplies as it delayed us getting ready & starting to drink that we actually decided not to go into the festival grounds to see The Naked and Famous at half 5. God only knows what the outcome could have been if we did.

One thing I have to say is the way in which the tragedy was dealt with. It was so well organised, trains from hasselt-kiewet station bringing people straight to brussels and people from local houses helping everyone by giving food and shelter etc. One thing we were not informed about was the fact that there was accommodation made available for the remainder of the festival as we went into Brussels and paid for accommodation. To be honest, I don't mind as I was just glad to be safe.

Such a terrible disaster that will never be forgotten for Pukkelpopers. My prayers are with the friends and families of those that died and also with those struggling with their lives. RIP

scudzilla

Wow, just seen these vid's for the first time

Weak, looks ok, weather doesn't look too bad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGolUkJYC0E

A few songs later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vbe8HJqkKI

ShortskirtCiara

These two videos really capture the torture that we all went through while there...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSF6g-LtpUU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

and this one was filmed at the beer tent at the campsite, literally our tent was just to right of this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIGiekIW418&feature=youtube_gdata_player

languagenerd

Still in Brussels (coming back tomorrow) and there's a thunderstorm here at the moment... It makes me so uneasy now!!

Looking at all the pictures that've emerged since - we were so lucky! 100m either direction and we'd have been hit... I've been reading the French papers here, they say 36 LITRES OF RAIN PER METRE SQUARED fell during those 20 minutes! :eek:

Professey Chin

ShortskirtCiara wrote: »

and this one was filmed at the beer tent at the campsite, literally our tent was just to right of this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIGiekIW418&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Holy sh!t! :eek:
You can see the lighting pylon go down! (1:56 on the right hand side)

ShortskirtCiara

languagenerd wrote: »

Still in Brussels (coming back tomorrow) and there's a thunderstorm here at the moment... It makes me so uneasy now

I really hope it wasn't as bad as the thunder storm we had on the thursday or the 2nd one at 2am that night. Never been so scared before in my life. The two worst things I hate, thunder & lightning and then wasps (which were EVERYWHERE)...So glad to be at home!

Have a safe trip home

Pigwidgeon

It was pretty bad last night/this morning. Our flight was meant to be leaving at 10:15, but because of the weather it got diverted to Dusseldorf. It's now 11.40 and they think we'll be leaving at about 1. Fùcking storms. I can't wait to get home at this stage.

ShortskirtCiara

Pigwidgeon wrote: »

It was pretty bad last night/this morning.

Was it as bad as Thursdays storm? This is crazy stuff. Belguim apparently never gets storms, they get thunder & lightning alright but never this bad. F**king mother nature is screwing us over!

honru

To those who went, do you agree with the organisers' decision to cancel the entire festival after the storm?

THEZAPPA

That was so scary, so so happy to be home and safe!

We were suppose to be at the back of the boiler room at the time but luckily I was hungry and we headed back to the tents after seeing the naked and famous. One of our friends were in the boiler room but luckily they weren't hurt.

We were told before we left the camping that night by people working for pukkelpop that we should stay in the camping and that the festival was going to keep going (even though another storm was on the way) and that we should buy a mattress for our tents to keep them down or go buy more tents. Had to find out by our Belgium neighbours that we should leave.

Didn't know about the free accommodation either but we found a nice place in Brussels to stay so don't mind.

I think it was right for them to cancel the entire thing, sure the stages were gone so bands couldn't have played. Also it was out of respect for the people who had died or been seriously injured.

Hope all the boardsie's are home safe or have a safe trip home!!

ShortskirtCiara

f®eak s©enery wrote: »

To those who went, do you agree with the organisers' decision to cancel the entire festival after the storm?

I do agree with the decision. Even if it continued, which it couldn't anyways cos the stages collapsed etc, knowone would really be able to enjoy it 100% as 5 people died, just wouldn't be right. Hopefully we will be compensated in some shape or form, even free tickets for next years pukkelpop for those who want to go next year, that would be awesome!

Professey Chin

If we got a discount on tickets for next year id be delighted I have to say

I agree with it being cancelled completely. Would have been impossible to continue after all that

Fluorescence

It'd be damn nice to get a partial refund for those tickets, but I will totally understand if they can't. I do hope they don't discontinue the festival in years to come. It's still one of the best organised festivals in Europe.

NothingMan

I understand that you're all being sympathetic to Pukkelpop and saying you'd be happy with discounts and partial refunds but an event like this should be fully insured and I personally would expect a full or almost full refund for tickets and vouchers bought.

Fluorescence

NothingMan wrote: »

I understand that you're all being sympathetic to Pukkelpop and saying you'd be happy with discounts and partial refunds but an event like this should be fully insured and I personally would expect a full or almost full refund for tickets and vouchers bought.

Any insurance I've ever encountered has had some get out clause about "Acts of God". They're probably not covered for freak storms that come out of nowhere.

NothingMan

fluorescence wrote: »

Any insurance I've ever encountered has had some get out clause about "Acts of God". They're probably not covered for freak storms that come out of nowhere.

I'm an atheist :pac:

ShortskirtCiara

Well apparently they were meant to make an announcement yesterday about whether or not they were going to refund the money for the tickets and vouchers but I haven't seen anything on google or the official pukkelpop website.

Also, we paid for accommodation in Brussels as we didn't realise there was free accommodation for us that was organised by Pukkelpop, wonder would be compensated for that too?

I know it was an 'Act of God' but surely the Insurance covers it. Insurance is there incase these type of things happen

Professey Chin

But Insurance companies go though everything and get out of every cent payment they can. That always makes these things unpredictable