Pukkelpop 2008

During the very first conversation I had with Lauren we argued over who would get the hot Scandinavian pilot. This is very funny, because he was probably gay, rarely in town, and most likely uninterested in either of us. We never saw him again, and we never agreed on a guy after that. Despite the alpha-female competition over his hotness, we decided to go to Pukkelpop, a festival in Belgium, that very same night. Even though we only knew each other for a few hours when we made this decision, it turned out to be a good one, because we became great friends very fast.

Pukkelpop was my 4th festival (Rockwerchter 2008 was my 3rd but my camera was stolen so it remains undocumented). Considering virtually the same bands play the festival circuit each summer with the same set, with band like Editors migrating to the main stage only to have White Lies also referred to as the "new Editors" take the side stage filling the void left by their predecessors because Editors are SO 2006... I digress. I won't talk so much about the music in this one but about the overall festival experience.

Pukkelpop was my second favorite festival overall. A strong line-up, good set-up, variety of entertainment and the right amount of festival randomness made it awesome. The major downer was the fact that we had to stand in line with camping gear and all to get our festival site wristband which we then used for the campgrounds. Using the "I'm foreign and I can't read the signs" approach we plowed through the line to the front to see what was going on. People HATED us but jokes on them; we were on the campgrounds in half an hour. Let the festival begin.

Below you can see an example of the earlier mentioned festival randomness. A year later we saw these same sculptures at Glastonbury...

They even had a marching band which I was so (unconsciously) enthralled by I that I started marching behind them and almost followed them to the back stage area. Luckily Lauren noticed that I was wandering off and snapped me back to reality and designated festival grounds. Me and Lauren in one of the first festival pictures; we're still decent here.
Standing back a third down the field and slightly to the side is the best place to watch a festival concert from. You can see the stage and screens, even if a giant stands in front of you. You have good sound and plenty of space to dance. It was here that I got accosted by a man with a banana... Twice. The second time I grabbed his banana. Lauren opened her eyes from her nap only when I had him by the banana and he was screaming in my face. Jokes on him.

Just a side note; if you do want to get to the front at a festival the key is to duck and weave - that way you'll stay below the mobs radar (at least if they're Dutch). If you see a gap in front of you, fill it. If you don't, someone else will. Also, dance with your elbows out. People get tired of being jabbed and move out of the way. No one will criticize you for this because deep down everyone knows that festivals are meant for dancing (even if they're afraid to participate).

At every festival you get the guys with the beer-cup-rainbow.

And that old chick...

You would think that a festival is the place to do some rare bird-watching, because at any point in time the sky is full of soaring objects. In reality they're just flying cardboard beer trays. See how many you can count in this picture - I count 4.

Pukkelpop had cool stage set-ups; this is Sigur Ros. At the end of the night they even had acrobats flying out of the trees. Not Sigur Ros - the festival.

On the last night I found God. Oh wait, it was just the lasers. Nevermind.