Pukkelpop Honours The Fallen

Belgium’s Pukkelpop Festival will hold a brief service to commemorate the five people who were killed at last year’s event when a ferocious storm blew down stages and forced the festival to be canceled.

The service will be in the club tent at the Kiewit festival site Aug. 5 and include speeches from Pukkelpop chief Chokri Mahassine and local mayor Hilde Claes.

National transport service De Lijn will schedule extra buses from Hasselt, the nearest major town to the site.

It wasn’t possible for Pukkelpop to make an insurance claim to cover the cost of the tragic incident that uprooted trees and leveled two stages because the disaster was classified as an unavoidable accident.

It left the event with the problem of refunding 66,000 ticket-holders and settling with whatever bands and suppliers needed paying.

The ticket-holders are being offered food and drink vouchers for the next three editions of the festival as compensation for the cancellation.

The acts at this year’s Pukkelpop Aug. 16-18 include Foo Fighters, Björk, The Black Keys, The Gaslight Anthem and Wilco.