Rock Werchter or Pukkelpop?

[Ale]

Hello! I'm interested above all in these two festivals, even because i always loved north europe. I wanted to ask you what are differences between Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop? I mean above all the atmosphere, audience, size of the festival, facilities etc. I went to Pukkelpop in 2015 but only one day and i had to come back in Bruxelles at 7 p.m, so basically i didn't have time to judge the festival. I remember that i felt uncomfortable because there were so many kids and they all spoke in dutch, so maybe i thought that at RW the atmosphere could be more international, and maybe with older audience? (I'm 24 so i'm still young but not THAT young). Basically i had the impression that PK is more for young people and for locals, am i right? I would be also happy to have an experience like glastonbury or great size festlvals anyway, so maybe RW is more indicated?

Edited February 14, 2019 by Ale

[alan_ts]

10 minutes ago, Ale said:

Hello! I'm interested above all in these two festivals, even because i always loved north europe. I wanted to ask you what are differences between Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop? I mean above all the atmosphere, audience, size of the festival, facilities etc. I went to Pukkelpop in 2015 but only one day and i had to come back in Bruxelles at 7 p.m, so basically i didn't have time to judge the festival. I remember that i felt uncomfortable because there were so many kids and they all spoke in dutch, so maybe i thought that at RW the atmosphere could be more international, and maybe with older audience? (I'm 24 so i'm still young but not THAT young). Basically i had the impression that PK is more for young people and for locals, am i right? I would be also happy to have an experience like glastonbury or great size festlvals anyway, so maybe RW is more indicated?

Mmm it depends on you. 

I've been 3 times at Pkp and basically I love the lineup. Atmosphere is good but it's true there are lots of kids listening to dubstep

 

Rw is more international, well organized and a stellar lineup but lacking of electronic acts. Furthermore camping is way better at Rw.

So overall it's better imo. 

[Trufflehound]

Well I'm not really local and I'm definitely not young, but I prefer Pukkelpop.

It depends on what your thing is.

From a musical perspective (and music is what interests me - I'm much less into the sideshows), Werchter concentrates on the big name acts and is where to go if you you want to see the arena bands.

Pukkelpop has smaller headliners, but a much better undercard in terms of small acts, and is a great place to discover new music, which is the main reason I keep going back there.

Last time I went to Werchter (2010), there were only a handful of acts on that interested me and I got thoroughly bored. Haven't been back since.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Trufflehound

[thetime]

Werchter for the line up, pukkelpop for the atmosphere. 

 

[Ale]

Thank you for your answers, yes i'm more interested in music but 2015 was not a good experience for me, it was also elie goulding day (i was there for chvrches and other small acts), so maybe it was the reason, the day before there were linkin park, maybe audience was different

 

It would be also my first real festival experience, i only went to lollapalooza berlin in 2016 (but it was not a festival with camping, music all day etc), and at northside in 2017 but then again i was all day tourist in aarhus staying in the city centre

 

 

 

[Ale]

58 minutes ago, alan_ts said:

Mmm it depends on you. 

I've been 3 times at Pkp and basically I love the lineup. Atmosphere is good but it's true there are lots of kids listening to dubstep

 

Rw is more international, well organized and a stellar lineup but lacking of electronic acts. Furthermore camping is way better at Rw.

So overall it's better imo. 

è tipo il club to il club (non so se ci sei mai stato) il pukkelpop, dove a volte vedi ragazzini fumati che ti guardano storto?

[micvet]

15 minutes ago, Trufflehound said:

Well I'm not really local and I'm definitely not young, but I prefer Pukkelpop.

It depends on what your thing is.

From a musical perspective (and music is what interests me - I'm much less into the sideshows), Werchter concentrates on the big name acts and is where to go if you you want to see the arena bands.

Pukkelpop has smaller headliners, but a much better undercard in terms of small acts, and is a great place to discover new music, which is the main reason I keep going back there.

Last time I went to Werchter (2010), there were only a handful of acts on that interested me and I got thoroughly bored. Haven't been back since.

In 2010 RW had a Main stage and Pyramid Marquee (Klub C). Now you have 2 extra stages with The Barn and The Slope.
With the 4 stages, the number of bands has almost doubled, with a larger undercard / more small acts now. RW is 4 full days, PKP 3.
If you're not into 'electronic music' and like guitars, RW offers you almost as many bands as PKP, from small to real big.

The avarage age of PKP is (way) lower than RW. More nervous drunken kids, which you can find especially in the dance hall and boiler, or at the camp site. The main stage is not that crowded than RW. For example: when The war on drugs was playing PKP, you could easily walk up till 15-20 meters from the main stage without pushing people.
RW is imo more relax and more international in general, but the stages are more crowded.

[alan_ts]

6 minutes ago, Ale said:

è tipo il club to il club (non so se ci sei mai stato) il pukkelpop, dove a volte vedi ragazzini fumati che ti guardano storto?

Assolutamente no

[DDave]

6 hours ago, Ale said:

Thank you for your answers, yes i'm more interested in music but 2015 was not a good experience for me, it was also elie goulding day (i was there for chvrches and other small acts), so maybe it was the reason, the day before there were linkin park, maybe audience was different

We skipped 2015 due to the line up, only the 2nd one I've missed in the last 10 years - the other was 2011. I'd give it another chance if I were you. Yes it's a fairly young crowd but I've never seen any trouble and they're the friendliest kids you could wish to meet and overall they're so much better behaved and respectful to each other than a UK crowd. It's one of the best festivals if you are into, like me, a wide range of music. I nip in and out of most of the stages and rarely find that there's nothing I like on. The main stage is a bit patchy at times but it's one of the only festivals that I would still go to even if the headliners were shit. We also stay in Hasselt rather than camping and we do spend a bit of time there before we go up to the festival, which makes it infinitely better for me. I'm 42 by the way and don't feel old or out of place there.

 

[DaveRSV4]

10 hours ago, DDave said:

We skipped 2015 due to the line up, only the 2nd one I've missed in the last 10 years - the other was 2011. I'd give it another chance if I were you. Yes it's a fairly young crowd but I've never seen any trouble and they're the friendliest kids you could wish to meet and overall they're so much better behaved and respectful to each other than a UK crowd. It's one of the best festivals if you are into, like me, a wide range of music. I nip in and out of most of the stages and rarely find that there's nothing I like on. The main stage is a bit patchy at times but it's one of the only festivals that I would still go to even if the headliners were shit. We also stay in Hasselt rather than camping and we do spend a bit of time there before we go up to the festival, which makes it infinitely better for me. I'm 42 by the way and don't feel old or out of place there.

 

I second that. I attend both festivals during the entire weekends. At Werchter: if you want to see something in the tents (Barn Or Klub C)...you have to make sure you enter on time. Chances are you won't get in at or after the concert started. Even more so... If it's packed and you leave to take a piss or a beer...It's possible you won't be able to re-enter again. Which happened to me several times the past years, and find that stressfull/annoying at times. When it's a sold out day at werchter, especially on saturday, it takes about 20 minutes to cover the distance from main to Barn.  At Pukkelpop: you can "always" (re-)enter the tents/stages, which is much more relaxing. Their are more stages at pukkelpop but the distance in between Main and Dancehall (furthest distance) can be crossed easily on 5 / 10 minutes. And I'm 43 ?, and feel perfectly at ease in between all the youngsters at PKP. Both festivals are easy to enter. Pukkelpop has finally found a solution to that problem since last year by checking in (getting your wristband) at the other side of the road. 

Edited February 15, 2019 by DaveRSV4

[alan_ts]

5 minutes ago, DaveRSV4 said:

I second that. I attend both festivals during the entire weekends. At Werchter: if you want to see something in the tents (Barn Or Klub C)...you have to make sure you enter on time. Chances are you won't get in at or after the concert started. Even more so... If it's packed and you leave to take a piss or a beer...It's possible you won't be able to re-enter again. Which happened to me several times the past years, and find that stressfull/annoying at times. When it's a sold out day at werchter, especially on saturday, it takes about 20 minutes to cover the distance from main to Barn.  At Pukkelpop: you can "always" (re-)enter the tents/stages, which is much more relaxing. Their are more stages at pukkelpop but the distance in between Main and Dancehall (furthest distance) can be crossed easily on 5 / 10 minutes. And I'm 43 ?, and feel perfectly at ease in between all the youngsters at PKP. Both festivals are easy to enter. Pukkelpop has finally found a solution to that problem since last year by checking in (getting your wristband) at the other side of the road. 

It's true but for some acts at Pkp could be a nightmare enter/re-enter the tent (i.e. Soulwax and Pendulum in 2010 were so packed even outside the tent that I had to go away). 

[Ale]

Thanks guys! If i can afford to go to a festival this summer, i will probably choose pukkelpop because august in the month in which i'm sure i have free time, and the lineup looks promising.

 

Plus i have to take "a revenge" against my faith in 2015, that day was horrible (not for something related to the festival) and i ended up being robbed in Bruxelles, so.....

But Rock Werchter is on my bucked list as well

[gigi21]

On 2/14/2019 at 3:08 PM, Ale said:

Hello! I'm interested above all in these two festivals, even because i always loved north europe. I wanted to ask you what are differences between Rock Werchter and Pukkelpop? I mean above all the atmosphere, audience, size of the festival, facilities etc. I went to Pukkelpop in 2015 but only one day and i had to come back in Bruxelles at 7 p.m, so basically i didn't have time to judge the festival. I remember that i felt uncomfortable because there were so many kids and they all spoke in dutch, so maybe i thought that at RW the atmosphere could be more international, and maybe with older audience? (I'm 24 so i'm still young but not THAT young). Basically i had the impression that PK is more for young people and for locals, am i right? I would be also happy to have an experience like glastonbury or great size festlvals anyway, so maybe RW is more indicated?

Ciao Ale!
I've never been at RW, but I've been two times at PKP (quite sure to go for the third time this year) and I hope my answer be helpful.
RW is one of the biggest (and probabily better organized festivals in Europe) with great international acts as headliners and over 100k people every day, but I prefer PKP for two reasons: because of the period and because of the undercard. PKP in fact has a lot of more stages with many shows of almost every genre and, even if it's a pop festival with a lot of young people, I always find many amazing shows to attend to.
There's a lot of young people at PKP, sure, due to many pop, rap, dance or dubstep acts, and I always feel old there... But I always had a lot of fun anyway and found adult people at the concerts I loved more and maybe this year we'll be more than usual, looking at the lineup. After all, nowadays I feel old at almost every concert... That moment in a man's life already came, so I don't mind it anymore 
Hope to see you in August and maybe share a good Belgian beer with you!

[Ale]

22 hours ago, gigi21 said:

Ciao Ale!
I've never been at RW, but I've been two times at PKP (quite sure to go for the third time this year) and I hope my answer be helpful.
RW is one of the biggest (and probabily better organized festivals in Europe) with great international acts as headliners and over 100k people every day, but I prefer PKP for two reasons: because of the period and because of the undercard. PKP in fact has a lot of more stages with many shows of almost every genre and, even if it's a pop festival with a lot of young people, I always find many amazing shows to attend to.
There's a lot of young people at PKP, sure, due to many pop, rap, dance or dubstep acts, and I always feel old there... But I always had a lot of fun anyway and found adult people at the concerts I loved more and maybe this year we'll be more than usual, looking at the lineup. After all, nowadays I feel old at almost every concert... That moment in a man's life already came, so I don't mind it anymore 
Hope to see you in August and maybe share a good Belgian beer with you!

Ciao! Vero quest'anno la line up pare figa, ci andrei sicuro se continuasse così