Pukkelpop Festival - a squad reunion between The NBHD, CHVRCHES and 45 minutes late Rihanna

Written by amina Thursday, September 15, 2016 Post Comment

Pukkelpop is a Belgian Rock festival which was founded in 1985. It takes place in the city of Hasselt and is known for a wide variety of alternative music but also styles like, pop, hip hop, heavy metal, electronic and dance music. Some notable acts that have played at Pukkelpop are Nirvana, Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins, Guns N' Roses, Foo Fighters and many more. This year Charlotte, Dina, Aileen and I got the chance to be there and see not only The NBHD but also many other great bands. It was the first Festival we all spent together on this tour and the excitement to see each other again was bigger than anything else.

Charlotte and I took the bus from Prague and reached Brussels after a 12 hour drive. We were both pretty exhausted when we arrived in Brussels around lunchtime and really looked forward to a day off, as Pukkelpop was two days after the headline show in Prague. We took two more trains and arrived at Charlotte's house around 2 hours after arriving in Brussels, finally being able to eat something proper again. The both of us grabbed a bowl of cereal, took a shower and then sat outside in the sun with her parents, before we got fries and burgers. Time passed and at night we went into Charlottes room with some drinks and watched a movie before we went to sleep.

The next morning we got up pretty early because The NBHD was supposed to play at 1:20pm and we had a pretty long way to get there. We took the train and reached Hasselt around 9:30am from where on we walked to the festival for about an hour. We got there at 10:45pm and then walked in to go to the Main stage, where The Neighbourhood was gonna play. After having trouble finding it we finally arrived at the Main stage around half an hour later. The first act was gonna play at 12pm, so we still had a lot of time left to wait. Dina and Aileen were still on their way and when the first act started Charlotte and I were still alone. We watched the first Coely, the first act, and when it was over Dina and Aileen finally arrived, shortly before The NBHD was about to get on the stage.

We let our excitement of seeing each other again out and then waited for The NBHD to start playing as the Tour Manager came down to us in the front row to talk to us. He asked us how we were and we had a small chat before another crew member of The NBHD came down to us to get us high fives and also talk to us. They then went back up to the stage and the show started.

The four of us went completely insane from the moment the show started. It was the first time seeing them again after the show in Paris. We sang along to each song and danced around the front row. After a few songs Jesse recognized Charlotte and me, since he had met us two days before in Prague and we told him about what we were doing. He stopped for a short moment pointed at us and waved at us with a big smile on his face, before he went back to performing. In that moment Charlotte and I went mental. On every show we had been waiting for him to recognize us since we had seen him so many times already, and now he finally did. We enjoyed the short set of 45 minutes even more then.

After the show of The NBHD was over the sound tech of them came down to us and talked to us about who he was gonna see that day and about the show, before he had to get backstage to help getting all the stuff of the band together and back into the bus.

The next band we were planning to see was Good Charlotte, who were gonna play on the same stage as The NBHD. The crew of Good Charlotte built up the stage and 5 tattooed guys in black clothes came on stage. They rocked the stage and played more old than new songs, which made us really happy since we didn't like the new songs as much. The crowd was singing along and everyon was dancing to their guitar riffs. They played as long as The NBHD, for 45 minutes before their set was over. All sweaty and out of breath the four of us left the stage.

We then had a two hour break before Charlotte and Dina wanted to go see State Champs, so we got some free water and then sat down in the sun and layed down and closed my eyes to relax a little bit. After about 40 minutes a few guys, that seemed pretty drunk, came up to us and started talking to Dina. She talked to them for a little and then we left, because they had gotten kinda annoying. We went to the toilet and got more water before we slowly went to the stage State Champs was gonna play at. The tent was empty and their crew was still building up the stage when we entered. Dina and Charlotte immediately went to the frond/second row while Aileen and I stayed more in the back because we didn't feel like being in the middle of the crowd.

The show started and the microphones of the band didn't work so during the first song you could only hear the instruments play and sometimes a few fans sing along. The crew fixed the problem and by the time the second song started the microphones were working again and the concert was able to start. The crowds were dancing in pits and the band went insane on the stage. It was a nice show but I wouldn't have had the energy to be in the middle of the crowd as it was pretty hot outside and my Diabetes was kinda messing with me.

The next act on our schedule was Catfish And The Bottlemen, Aileen's favorite band that she had never seen before. We went into the next tent, pretty close to where State Champs played and went up to the front row. The set was still being set up and Aileen's excitement seemed to be really big. She had never seen them before and couldn't belive she was gonna see them even thoug we were right in front of their set. Seeing her like that reminded me a lot of when I saw The NBHD for the first time in 2015. I didn't know the music of Catfish And The Bottlemen but was excited to see them as I knew that Aileen has a pretty similar taste in music as I do.

The band came up the stage and I immediately liked their music. While the rest of the band was standing on stage playing their instruments, the singer went completely insane and sometimes I was scared he was gonna break something on stage or even fall off the stage. He danced around and sang and seemed like he didn't care about anything. Aileen couldn't stop smiling during the whole show and it made me really happy to see her that excited. When the show was done she was completely done too and couldn't believe she had just seen her favorite band.

After the set of Catfish And The Bottlemen I wanted to see The Kills, so I went to the tent right next to where we had just been. Charlotte, Dina and Aileen went inside with me for a few minutes before they left to get some free water and go to the toilet. When they came back they told me that they were gonna sit outside so I went with them and listened to The Kills from outside the tent while the sun was going down. The tent was filled with middle aged people and there were no fangirls going insane or fighting about places, what made the whole setting of the show way more relaxed. When we sat outside we asked someone to take a polaroid picture of us. We then listened to the set of The Kills and then went back to where Catfish played at to listen to Matt Corby, who didn't really play my kind of music.

When Matt Corby was almost done I wanted to see CHVRCHES again. So we went to the stage CHVRCHES was gonna play at. I went to where the sound tech area was and watched the show from there. Dina and Aileen went to the toilet again so Charlotte and I were watching CHVRCHES together. I sang along to the songs and was excited to finally be able to see their full set. As the show went on more and more people left the tent and went to the Main Stage where Rihanna was gonna play at. With more people leaving I had gotten more space to dance, especially because I didn't want to see Rihanna.

After the show was done we decided to just go and watch Rihanna as we didn't have any other acts we wanted to watch. So we went with the mass of people into the direction of the Main Stage, but Rihanna just didn't start playing. The crowd was getting bigger and bigger and still no sign of movement on the stage, so we left after she was half an hour late. We went to the toilet for the last time and then left the festival. When we made our way to the car Rihanna started playing, 45 minutes late and I didn't understand why people were still standing there as someone missing half their own set would ruin a show for me. We listened to Rihanna's set until we went into the shuttle bus.

The shuttle bus brought us to the camping space which was really close to where Dina and Aileen had parked and after a while of searching for the car we were finally able to sit down in it and drink some proper water and eat something. We then dropped Charlotte off at the train station, after looking for the way to Hasselt station for more than an hour, and made our way to Hamburg, my hometown.

We drove the whole night before we reached Hamburg and with it the next festival...