Pukkelpop and recovery

I survived. I survived the 3-4 day craze that is Pukkelpop. This music festival in Kiewit, Belgium is one of the craziest things I have been to even though my new friends here assure me it is not that uncommon. I can only think of maybe 3 or 4 music festivals of this size in the US that happen every year, but Belgium and its fame for parying put on aroudn 20 festivals annually. Oh where to begin describing this...

I guess I´ll start on Wednesday... Stefanie and Lut and I went to do some provision purchasing for 3 days of camping and we stocked up on the essentials: chips, waffles, sausages, sangria, red wine, vodka, campari, etc. I dont exaggerate when I say that I doubt I have eaten a vegetable in the last 5 days. That night we stopped by Lut´s aunt´s surprise birthday party and left for Kiewit. We were the ones that would arrive early to set up everyone´s tent. And by set up I mean more "fight to get a space for eveyone´s tent". Here´s the stats to give you an idea...

"No less than 198 musical acts played at the festival, 41 of which were Belgian. Pukkelpop continues to promote Belgium’s musical pride. Each day Pukkelpop received more than 65,000 visitors of 51 different nationalities. Mainly Dutch, British, Irish and Swiss music lovers found their way to the Kiewit fields. Even Australia was amply represented.

We counted more than 54,000 campers. During the past three days, De Lijn transported 78,000 music lovers. About 30,000 people came to the festival by train, a rise by 20%, which caused NMBS to have two trains on stand-by in addition to the 15 extra trains on Sunday.
Between 8 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. on Sunday, trains with destination Hasselt will leave Kiewit station every fifteen minutes.

For the first time the festival was completely sold out with 62,500 paying visitors a day. The maximum waiting time for the identity control at the waiting desk was 11 minutes."

So, yeah it was crowded. My tent was stepped on numerous times over the 3 days, each time someone´s foot coming dangerously close to my skull. But I am unharmed! Anyways, that night Lut and I went to the preparty and then the next day the insanity began. I´m stoked I got to see so many bands -

Snow Patrol, The XX, Boys Noize, The Kooks, Groove Armada, Kele, Goldfrapp, Benny Benasi, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Yeasayer, Kate Nash, Foals, Broken Bells, The Drums, Caribou, OK Go, Four Tet, Aeroplane Dj Set, Matt and Kim, Cymbals eat Guitar, DOMINIQUE YOUNG UNIQUE (one of my faves even thought she had to play at 11am saturday morning and no one was awake to go to her show), Broken Glass Heroes, and more... Sad story!! Ou est le Swimming Pool played at the festival and then that night after they performed the lead singer killed himself in the parking lot. Just sayin. Kind of crazy.

Also, my friends tought me a lot of Dutch and that´s pretty fun. I´ll write more later but for now I need to nap. the four days of sleeping on the ground in the middle of a refugee camp with alcohol have taken a toll on me. More to come!