Pukkelpop started small. In 1985 the Humanist Youth of Leopoldsburg, the group now known as HAJEE!, put on a festival out of De Pukkel, its youth house. That first bill already put Front 242 and The Neon Judgement alongside Anne Clark, Anna Domino and Ostrogoth.

Four decades on, it is a four-day event on fields and woodland at Kiewit, just north of Hasselt in Limburg, and the organisers put daily attendance at around 66,000.

A deliberately wide bill

Pukkelpop has never picked one lane. The booking policy is openly eclectic: guitar bands, singer-songwriters, rap, metal, pop and a lot of dance music, with current names, future headliners, legends and local acts sharing the grounds. The festival likes to point out that Nirvana, Amy Winehouse, Foo Fighters, Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa all passed through Kiewit before they were household names.

For electronic fans that breadth is the point. The dance programme sits inside a festival that also programmes heavy rock and quiet songwriters, so a day can run from a club set to a mosh pit and back.

The grounds

The site opens at 11:00 and does not depend on the stages to keep people busy. Boulevard Bizar runs for about a kilometre of street theatre, performance art and roaming oddities. There is a Ferris wheel over the grounds, a 3D video wall, and Food Wood, where the food stalls cover vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and lactose-free diets.

Camping is half the experience for many Pukkelpoppers. Camping Chill sits directly across from the festival site and Camping Relax is about a five-minute walk away. Both have hot showers, food islands with microwaves, a bar that stays open around the clock and a self-service supermarket. Campers, caravans and mobile homes are not allowed on the official campsites.

Care and memory

On 18 August 2011 a sudden, violent storm hit the festival. Five people died and dozens were injured. A monument opposite the site remembers them.

Safety now has its own programme. We Care A Lot covers harassment, alcohol and drugs, safe sex, hearing protection and mental wellbeing, with trained volunteers, mobile teams and an emergency line during the festival. Partners include UCLL, Plan International, Safe 'n Sound, the Vias Institute and Limburg's Sexual Violence Care Centre.