Pukkelpop 2015

[DDave]

Unlike the XX who I got quite into after deriding their headline position, I've just had another listen to Bastille.

Bloody awful. I'm still in disbelief they're in the mix for being anywhere near the headliners.

Edited March 25, 2015 by DiscothequeDave

[TheNewUnion]

I'm still in disbelief they're in the mix for being anywhere near the headliners.

You speak the truth. 3rd to at best

[Diocane]

Can't compare Bastille with XX

Bastille have been an early afternoon act in every big/mid size festival they played in summer 2014. No new material. There's no explanation how they could become an headliner.

Acts like The XX (or Florence for example) maybe are not headlining size but they have an history like subs or 2nd stage headliners in very important festivals

[DDave]

Can't compare Bastille with XX

Bastille have been an early afternoon act in every big/mid size festival they played in summer 2014. No new material. There's no explanation how they could become an headliner.

Acts like The XX (or Florence for example) maybe are not headlining size but they have an history like subs or 2nd stage headliners in very important festivals

Exactly. The position that PP has given them is baffling.

[johnybegood]

The most strange thing is that people is not complaining about Bastille! If they do that in BBK Live or Benicassim or other big spanish festival, people would be talking shit and complaining really hard in Facebook and Twitter... This annoucement has been like if nothing had happened. Just a few comments on facebook down the video they posted... It's like people don't care about the line-up...

[Dietediet]

The most strange thing is that people is not complaining about Bastille! If they do that in BBK Live or Benicassim or other big spanish festival, people would be talking shit and complaining really hard in Facebook and Twitter... This annoucement has been like if nothing had happened. Just a few comments on facebook down the video they posted... It's like people don't care about the line-up...

I think a lot of people don't know about it yet. Pukkelpop is not explicitely naming them headliner, and the poster format makes it hard to compare sizes (as opposed to the good old 'ranked by size' posters). There's actually a lot of discussions going on about it on Twitter.

That being said, I've seen people who were happy about Bastille headlining... I hope they're a dying breed.

[Name taken]

If I did care for headliners.
I'ld buy tickets for Rock werchter or whatever big festival.

Like them smaller stages and bands! Yes!

[Dietediet]

If I did care for headliners.

I'ld buy tickets for Rock werchter or whatever big festival.

Like them smaller stages and bands! Yes!

While I do agree headliners aren't the most important aspect of Pukkelpop, it's still something I do take into account. It's unavoidable when noting that ticket prices are up in the big festival range, with 190 euros for a weekend ticket and 95 euros for a day. The mid and small sized names are rather nice at the moment, that's a fact. But if I only want to see mid and small sized names, I can do that at Dour/Best Kept Secret/Down The Rabbit Hole/Les Ardentes/... at 100-140 euros for 3-5 days.

Occasionally I'd like to be surprised by a bigger gem. It's difficult to find an act like Neil Young, Kraftwerk or Stone Roses at a midsized festival. Bastille, Limp Bizkit, The Offspring and Ellie Goulding high up the card is a hard pill to swallow when you know stuff like Blur, Beck and The Libertines is around (I'll forgive them Linkin Park for the lack of headliners in August).

Edited March 25, 2015 by Dietediet

[chimmer]

i for one think the lineup is great...all the people i wanted to see at Reading playing (bar one or two)

and great addictions that I've sadly not yet had a chance to see (Offspring, Oizo, Major Lazer)

me and the missus are planning on going, plenty for her and plenty for me and makes it a bit more interesting going out of the UK.

headliners if they are LP & bastille are pretty cack, but ill probably see both (missus likes bastille...and linking park for nostalgia) hoping the last act is Blur, but we shall see! Would love just one more big headliner.....Faith No More, Kiss or Motley Crue would be bang on for me!


*FNM, Crue & Kiss are all touring in S/N. America.....damn....


Muse?

Edited March 26, 2015 by chimmer

[rzwodezwo]

Muse is ouuurs (ergo: They play Werchter)

[DDave]

While I do agree headliners aren't the most important aspect of Pukkelpop, it's still something I do take into account. It's unavoidable when noting that ticket prices are up in the big festival range, with 190 euros for a weekend ticket and 95 euros for a day. The mid and small sized names are rather nice at the moment, that's a fact. But if I only want to see mid and small sized names, I can do that at Dour/Best Kept Secret/Down The Rabbit Hole/Les Ardentes/... at 100-140 euros for 3-5 days.

Occasionally I'd like to be surprised by a bigger gem. It's difficult to find an act like Neil Young, Kraftwerk or Stone Roses at a midsized festival. Bastille, Limp Bizkit, The Offspring and Ellie Goulding high up the card is a hard pill to swallow when you know stuff like Blur, Beck and The Libertines is around (I'll forgive them Linkin Park for the lack of headliners in August).

Sums up exactly how I feel. They've done the line up on the cheap so far.

[DDave]

http://m.hbvl.be/cnt/dmf20150326_01599356/blur-komt-zeker-niet-naar-pukkelpop?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=dlvrit&utm_campaign=feed

[johnybegood]

http://m.hbvl.be/cnt/dmf20150326_01599356/blur-komt-zeker-niet-naar-pukkelpop?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=dlvrit&utm_campaign=feed

Every year the same story with festileaks and their "inside" sources... This year they played with lot of people illusion...

Let's wait for the last headliner, although I have no hope in a decent name...

This year the tickets will be more expensive than ever and there is no compensation tickets (60.000 x 50€ = 3.000.000 €). Where is that money? Bastille must me the cheaper headliner in Pukkelpop history and Linkin Park can't be so expensive as Foos or Eminem, Netsky, Major Lazer and Rudimental are much cheaper than Chems, Faithless and Prodigy...

After the storm, I'm sure that the budget for bands has been lower than 2010/2011 ones, and the festival have benn sold out every year faster... I think that they got the conclusion that they will sell out the festival whatever the line-up will be.

So dissapointed.

Edited March 26, 2015 by johnybegood

[SoLoCo]

I have a feeling theres got to be a few more decent announcements to come. We didn't get Slowdive and St.Vincent last year till a few weeks after the main announcement right? Still hopeful on Super Furry Animals and Ride.

Edit: On terms of headliner acts, maybe it is just that Pukkelpop have struggled to book some? RW seem to have pulled all the acts they can!

Edited March 26, 2015 by SoLoCo

[Dietediet]

If Blur isn't coming we can be certain that Bastille is a headliner... I can't even think of 1 possible headliner that's left in that period, let alone 2.

[Semprini]

You can officially cross Blur off the list:

http://festileaks.com/2015/03/rectificatie-blur-niet-naar-pukkelpop/

[Dietediet]

After werchter and pukkelpop line-up's, it seems Belgium has caught up with the UK with average line-up's.

To be honest, we can rather say it's a shit Summer for the major European festivals. Roskilde and Hurricane/Southside are quite underwhelming, Lowlands is even worse than Pukkelpop, Sziget isn't doing any better so far, ...

[DDave]

You can officially cross Blur off the list:

http://festileaks.com/2015/03/rectificatie-blur-niet-naar-pukkelpop/

Makes the line up announcement look really shit now. But at least they've let us know.

Seriously looking elsewhere now.

Edited March 26, 2015 by DiscothequeDave

[Trufflehound]

Is there any official word on when ticket sales start? Several bands have mentioned April 15, but has that been confirmed anywhere by PKP central, or is it another possible Chinese whisper?

Just finished checking out all the names I'd never heard of. So far I've got 40 out of 119 on my long list, which is about par compared with previous years.

[Dietediet]

Is there any official word on when ticket sales start? Several bands have mentioned April 15, but has that been confirmed anywhere by PKP central, or is it another possible Chinese whisper?

No official word, neither Pukkelpop nor Studio Brussel mentioned a date. But since several bands are mentioning it independently it must be spot on, no?

[Dietediet]

Something I just read on the festileaks forum: "let's not forget about Kings of Leon".

Only came in the picture recently, not too expensive and ties in well with the other shit big names...

[johnybegood]

What a strange way to proceed. First names were supposed to be in early march, then a big silence, finally we get the names at late march. We get more names than ever (119) but we don't get one headliner (1st time in last 5 years we don't get all headliners in 1st announcement) and other of the headliners seems to be a last minute plan B (Bastille). The process chosen for announcing the bands: no offical hour, not posted in Facebook until 1 hour after being in the web site... and no offical ticket sale date... It's like they had a plan at the end of february and during march this plan has been self-destroying and they have no hay idea how lo resolve the situation... Not the normal way to proceed for such a well-organized festival.

Edited March 26, 2015 by johnybegood

[DDave]

Something I just read on the festileaks forum: "let's not forget about Kings of Leon".

Only came in the picture recently, not too expensive and ties in well with the other shit big names...

The Kings of Leon being announced would be like the Beatles turning up with Hendrix on lead guitar and Stevie Wonder on keyboards at the moment in comparison to the rest of the main stage shit that's been announced.

[TheNewUnion]

Kings of Leon. Not my bag, but if they were announced you'd be looking OK headline wise I suppose.

For example, of they went something like

Netsky/Kings Of Leon/Ellie Goulding/The War On Drugs

That would stand up at most festivals

Or

Major Lazer/Linkin Park/Seasick Steve/Rudimental

[DDave]

I think the main problem for me is that we were all expecting the main bands announced yesterday (LP, Ellie Goulding, Bastille etc) but were also expecting at least one quality headliner (Blur for example) and some quality subs to balance it out. Now we're just left with the worst half of what we thought would happen without the good stuff and probably the weakest headliner PP has ever put on. If the quality is to come later I.e. Beck etc it's a strange way of going about things. This last headliner needs to be a massive name for things to turn around positively.

I also think the bigger medium sized band's such as Underworld, Tame Impala and the Interpol have been really underplayed by the organisers. They've hardly had a mention.

Edited March 26, 2015 by DiscothequeDave