Pukkelpop 2011 - my experience

Written on 21/08/2011 - modified on 23/08/2011
Here's my story about our first PukkelPop ever.
First of all I want to say that my thoughts go out to the families and friends of the people that got hurt or lost their lives, to all the other people at the festival that experienced this nightmare, and to the people of the PukkelPop-organization and the emergency services that now need to carry this heavy burden.

We arrived at PukkelPop festival around 2.30pm. After driving there for more than an hour, we came near the entrance and there were a lot of people, but the police was taking care of that, making sure they all crossed in large groups so we could pass fluently on our way to the parking.
We 'landed' at parking 8, somewhere in the back of a residential area, in a field.
After walking for about 20 minutes, we arrived at the festival itself. Our tickets were scanned, we received a wristband and our backpack was checked for forbidden stuff.

As we were already late for the comedy part (before we left, we stopped at a store to buy some ponchos), we checked out the map and the program to check what we wanted to see and where we had to go to do that.
The group we were interested in, didn't start for a while yet, so we went to the cash register to buy some food and drinking coupons.
In our search for a bite to eat and some drinks (it was already past 3pm and really hot and sunny), we passed by the PukkelPop merchandising stand. I proudly buy a nice top from PukkelPop (this is my first 'real' festival you know, shame on me)
We find something to eat and drink and finish it while sitting under a big tree in the shadow.

We felt a little stupid. There we were, walking around on a festival, where everyone was wearing flip-flops or small shoes, and we were wearing our hiking boots. There was some rain forecasted, so we just wanted to be prepared as a big field easily turns in to one big pool of mud when it rains.
When we finished our lunch, we went to take a look at the Shelter, the tent where Veara would be starting in about 15min. It's still really hot, so we go into the tent to find a spot out of the sun.
After their show, around 5pm, we start walking up to the Main Stage. Skunk Anansie will be starting there around 5.25pm.
First checking out some promotional stands from the lottery to see if we won something with our wristband (yeey, a hat!) and watch people getting water over their heads with a game at the coca-cola-stand.
We get some earplugs from another stand and quickly go to the toilets near the Main Stage.
By now Skunk Anansie is starting the show. We're at a good spot near the stage and have a great view at Skin and the band.
Once in a while we look back and see the predicted rain clouds getting closer. We're laughing that it's almost certain that we'll need our newly bought ponchos before the end of the show.
During the show we enjoy the music, but keep watching over our shoulder once in a while and see a very dark, green/brown/black cloud coming closer to the festival.
It starts to rain at about 6pm and the wind comes from behind us, towards the stage and is getting stronger and stronger.
It even blows the rain under our poncho so our legs get completely wet. As the poncho now sticks on our legs, the rain just pours into our shoes. (We laugh again, great having these water proof hiking boots, too bad it doesn't count when the rain is running down your legs.)
Luckily, we manage to stay dry more or less.
Unfortunately that doesn't count for everyone. Lots of people didn't think about the rain and are now standing there without raincoats and even often without t-shirt or in bikini-tops.
6.10pm: The wind is now blowing really really hard and leafs and small branches are flying around and on the main stage.
The stage has turned into a massive shower for Skin and the rest of the band. Leafs are flying in their face. Skin shouts that she doesn't know if she can continue like this, but she does anyway.
Larger things like small branches and big leafs are now flying around. It so dark as if it were night! The field is slowly turning into a big lake.
At that moment it's all still 'fun' and we laugh again: "wow now it's getting really bad, they'll have a hard time cleaning the stage for the next band!".
But then the hail starts, it seems like hell is breaking loose and we completely forget the music. (I saw on YouTube afterwards that she announces that she has to stop, but then runs of the stage to take cover without even finishing her sentence, but we weren't listening anymore.)
We take cover by hugging each other with our heads down and we stay put.
After a minute or so, the crowd (including myself) is slightly starting to panic.
'This really hurts!', the hail now had the size of really large marbles (most of them more than 1cm and lots even 1,5 or more).
We get down on our knees to avoid the hail on our bare legs. But it's not easy so we stand up again. It hurts too much so we get down again, together with two other girls that we've never seen before, trying to protect each other at least a little bit.
When the worst is over, the girls run off to a near-by tent to hide. We doubt to follow them, but we stay where we are. "I'm sure there's no more room anyway", I say.
Everywhere we see groups of people, trying to take cover from the hail, also trying to protect each other.
It seemed to take hours while we sat there together.
And then the hail finally stops. We measure our 'damage': a couple of painful bruises on arms and legs.
We're glad it's all over and we laugh: 'wow, this will definitely become a news item tomorrow!'.
We even take some pics of the flooded field and from me jumping into the water that is a couple of cm above the grass everywhere.
After a first attempt, Ken laughs that I have to jump again because it wasn't good. I try again but then give up as my pants are now wet until my waist.
I don't take a 3rd shot although it's still really hot.
At this moment (about 6.30pm) we still don't have a clue of what happened less than 100 meters further on the festival field.
I try to figure out the paper with the line-up that was in my purse that is totally soaked. We can just read that Katy-B is performing on the other side of the terrain in about half an hour.
We assume that Skin won't be back to finish her show and we start wading through the water.
A bit further on our way, we need to cross through a smaller gate and a lot of people are queuing, still a bit shaken by what just happened.
It's only then that we see a huge tree that fell down on one of the promotion stands.
We're quite shocked: because of the heavy rain and hail there must have been lots of people inside the tent. We were also almost in this tent as this was the closest one to where we were standing.
Luckily we already see people of the crew barricading the area to prevent more people getting hurt and people from the 'Flemish Cross' carrying some wounded people over the field.
We try to get out of the stream of walking people and then see that there's more. The Chateau has completely collapsed!
We realize that lots of people must have been hurt as it was quite a big tent that was probably full, because of band that was playing and the heavy rain and hail.
We call our parents. It's about 6.45pm. "Dad, you're probably going to hear about it in the news, but it's just to say that we're ok". I can just hear him respond with something like, 'oh, ok!', and then the line is cut off.
Ken is also able to call his parents (for lots of people this wasn't possible as most mobile services were overloaded).
They are just at our house, feeding the kitten, so they can't immediately put on the TV to watch the news, but at least they know that we're ok.
We walk in the direction of the Chateau where the first aid tent is also located. (Next to the lottery-stand where we were earlier.)
We decide to go and check if we, as Red Cross first aid volunteers can help in any way.
Expecting a “thanks, that's sweet, but we're ok”, but we couldn't have been further from the truth.
They take us to a small tent nearby, provide us with gloves, some first aid material, aluminium blankets, ... We get started gathering all the 'slightly injured people' and the adrenaline-rush kicks in. It’s about 7pm.
We help out taking care of the light-injured people so that the original first aid tent with more first aid materials and medicins remains available for the heavily injured.
Luckily we're not alone. Next to our colleagues from the Flemish Cross, other people come in to help: nurses, doctors, ... all visitors at the festival but now volunteering to help.
Suddenly we realize that there's another tree that came down, 1m behind the first aid tent! I talk to a Flemish-Cross-colleague and apparently the tree fell when they were holding down their tent with the whole crew, preventing it from collapsing or flying away.
We continue working. Most people already have some bandages on (mostly head injuries), so we mainly just hand out aluminium-blankets to prevent people getting too cold. We also talk to people to see what injuries they have to decide who needs to go to the hospital immediately and who can still wait a bit.
When most people are gone (to the hospital or to a gym nearby where everyone is gathered) they ask us if we can also come to the gym.
We realize that the festival is finished for today anyway, so we agree.
A police-squad quickly takes Ken and me from the field to the gym as most cars already left.
In the gym benches are put next to each other and all injured people have to sit there with their faces turned forward so the people in charge can keep an overview.
Every 'helper' takes one bench and talks to the people that are on it. At this moment it's still the Flemish Cross that is in charge.
Again we do the same as on the field: talking to people as we keep on checking them. We alert the doctor when people are getting worse so they can be taken to the hospital first.
We hand out aluminium blankets to make sure they are not too cold (most of them have wet clothes underneath).
At about 9pm I realize that my cell phone is still in our backpack. I check it for some worried text messages and quickly answer them to say that we're ok.
By now, the Red Cross has taken over mostly, which is normal when emergency plans are set-up.
Around 10pm I'm getting really hungry as we didn't have anything to eat anymore since 3pm.
I feel the energy floating out of my body so I go and take a dextro energy tablet and drink some coca-cola. The adrenaline-rush is over...
We stay with a couple of girls that are all alone, soaking wet and not able to reach their parents.
We talk a lot; let them try calling their parents with our cell phones, and hope together with them that they get here soon to pick them up.
We propose to drive one of the girls home. She can't seem to reach her parents, but doesn't live too far, is not injured and still has her house keys. Luckily her parents did hear one of the voice mail messages and arrives to pick their daughter up.
Around 11.30pm they start to shut down the gym. Everything has been cleaned-up and all the people that are left, are gathered in a smaller room.
Now everyone needs to move to a larger hall in Hasselt, the biggest town near the festival. The red cross and PukkelPop crew are providing a place to sleep and eat there for everyone that no longer has a tent or a way to get home.
After some negotiation, we finally find someone that wants to take us back to the festival-field as we need to get back to our car. (It’s really hard to get there as everything is closed-down by now)
We start walking the 20mins back through the residential area, slowly realizing what we escaped off... Still shaken from what happened, we see lots of trees lying down in the gardens and on the roads, it's absurd.
Happy to have reached the car, and finding it in one piece, we get going, finally!
But then the unthinkable happens: while driving through the field towards the exit, we get stuck in the mud really deep. Ken walks out to find some help, I stay with the car, there are only about 20 cars left on the parking lot, probably of people injured or camping or ..
I see some other rain clouds with lightning and thunder coming closer.
That's it, I 'crash', I just want to get home before we get stuck in another storm.
Luckily, one of the neighbours has a jeep and is already pulling out other cars. Then it’s our turn and he pulls us out.
It's about 1am when we are on the highway, on our way home.
My sister, Anja, sends me a text message: The festival would still be starting again tomorrow morning. I just don't get it. All the damage... No way that they can fix it by the next day. The field looks like a war-zone and even the entrance partially collapsed. Not only the visitors have experienced this nightmare, also the crew and all volunteers where there. I can imagine most of the under-aged girls won’t even be allowed to come to the festival anymore, and how can they have a festival without the crew for food, drinks, ...?
By 2am we're finally home and go to sleep. On Friday we try to recover from the nightmare and are glad that we're ok.
Thanks to skunk Anansie we were at the main stage in an open field, and not in one of the tents that was torn to pieces.
The couple of bruises are nothing compared to what we've seen on the field, and to the people that lost their lives in the storm.
We're also happy to hear the next morning that they decide that the festival is over after all. A brave but correct decision, in respect to the victims.
I also don't get that they are looking at the organization to blame for what happened. This was a storm that couldn't have been predicted.
Now, a couple of days later, we're slowly getting over it. I can finally look at footage from the storm, the field, the festival, ... without starting to cry.
But in silent moments, my head is flooded with images from what happened.
No 'bad images' from people that are hurt, but just the damage on the field, the people that are devastated, unable to reach their loved ones, a tree that just snapped like a little branch, the huge amount of injured people in the gym, ...
I'm sure it will take some time to give this all a place in my head and heart, but I'll never forget it.
And my wristband? I'm keeping it on for a while. I can't take it off, not just yet...!