Pukkelpop Casts Shadow On Lowlands

Although the 50,000-capacity Lowlands Festival in The Netherlands had little problem with the weather, the recent Pukkelpop tragedy in Belgium cast a shadow over those working in Lowlands’ production room.

“It was like having to imagine the unimaginable,” Lowlands chief Eric van Eerdenburg told Pollstar after spending the Aug. 19-21 weekend telling Dutch media how his festival would deal with such a situation.

“There’s nothing you can do to prevent such freak weather and so it can only be a case of liaising with the police, fire brigade, the health service and others to work out the best plan for dealing with it,” he explained.

The festival, which had sold all its tickets within a couple of hours of going on sale in November, managed to avoid any bad weather other than a couple of showers.

The Lowlands lineup included Elbow, Fleet Foxes, The Roots, Noah & The Whale, Lamb, Skunk Anansie, Interpol, The View, Crystal Fighters, and The Kills.