The Streets Pukkelpop Festival 2011 (cancelled)

Hasselt, Belgium, 18 August 2011

I took the nightbus to work. I had to work at Starbucks first, from 6am till 12.30pm. When I finished Ozzy was there to pick me up. (I gave him a coffee, easy when you work at Starbucks). We drove to my house, I got freshen up and changed. Off we go to Pukkelpop.

I text Laurence that we were on our way.

At 2ish we stopped at a Maccy D to have some lunch. That was in Best. They had a Michael Jackson memorial there. (the statue is gone since MJ got sexually accused by 2 guys).

At 3.45 I got a message from Laurence that she has arrived. She was waiting in the sun for us. It was very warm! We arrived at about 4.15pm. Time to find Laurence.  When we found her we collected our passes (Thanks Ted for sorting us out again. I got a +2) and we got in. I text Rod to say we had arrived. I wanted to send an email/text to Ted to thank him, but it wouldn’t sent.

We walked around the festival for a bit and decided to wait nearby the Marquee tent where Mike would play. It started raining so we went inside the tent. Not long after it was dry again and the sun was shining again – and very warm!

At about 5.30 pm. I joked to Laurence and Ozzy that I thought that Mike would be chilling with Benga & Skream backstage, but at that very moment Mike walked by. I went over to say hello. He told me he was busy, he was also carrying a camera. Mike walked further after I got 2 kisses on my cheek. We’ve seen Mike now, we can go home.

At about 6pm we collected some earplugs at the entrance. I got a phone call from Rod he asked where I was. He just got backstage, but he would phone me in 10 minutes time, then about 5 minutes later it got very very dark. The sky was nearly black. it started raining, we went back inside the marquee, I told Rod to stay where he was cos it would be very stormy.

Then it was raining harder and harder and the wind was blowing the rain across the festival site. You would think you’ll be dry under a tent, but the wind blew the rain horizontal through the tent. We were soaking wet. It didn’t look very scary. It’s weird, we sort of had fun with the people around us. We looked at the roof top of the tent and we hoped it wouldn’t collapse. Well we made jokes about it. It was actually cozy underneath that tent.

The storm didn’t take long, but when it was finished we saw tents being collapsed (we were joking about this, but it actually happened).  We went to get some food, to heat up as well. and we saw 2 trees, which fell against the tent the Shelter, that tent was right behind the Marquee tent where The Streets would be playing. Then we walked around the festival site to see the damage. Another tree fell.

It wasn’t that scary when it happened but when we saw the damage, then we found out how serious it was. Even now we didn’t take it very serious. I’m just glad we were all safe though. Hopefully the boys are safe as well.

There fell a tree on a tent where people could get some food.

When we walked around the main stage we heard that they would try to fix the technical problems on the 3 big stages, that was; the Main Stage, the Marquee and another tent.

We went to the toilet, when we finished it started raining again, so we stayed inside. Sometimes I am so lucky that I have no sense of smell. Anyway 3 girls joined me. It sounds a little weird, but only hiding for the rain. Then it was raining less heavy. 2 girls left. 1 stayed behind to pee. Then Ozzy warned me that we would had to go back to the Marquee tent, luckily that lady just finished. The sky was getting dark again. As soon as we got to the tent it started raining again.

We kept asking the security guards what was happening but they didn’t know, no-one told them anything. We heard that the main stage collapsed as well. And that between 1 and 8 people had died. Not from the security, but from people who have been told by their friends who were watching the news at home. Also people who were on the camping were not allowed to leave and people were not allowed to go on the camping. It was chaos.

We saw Stuart, Rod and Madge on stage. When Madge saw us he showed us he didn’t know what was going to happen yet either but he came over. He told us that everybody was safe. And that they saw tents hanging in trees. We had a chat for a while. Madge said that he was happy to see that we were safe. I was happy to see that they were safe. I was a little worried. He said that Rob went to a toilet, and just before the storm and when he walked back to the others a tree fell on that toilet. Then Magic went back to see what was going on. What was happening.

Then suddenly my phone rang. It was my mum. She thought I was at work. Didn’t tell her I was going. I had 6 missed calls from her and a text saying are you ok? Also Ozzy had 4 missed calls and the same message from her. My brother had text us too. I answered them all, to let them know we were fine.

I had a missed call from Rod. I couldn’t phone anyone, but I could send text messages. I told Rod that I couldn’t call, only text. He said it wouldn’t be the time for a show, as people died today. That was very respectful to make that decision. At about 9.30 we left the festival and walked to the car. In the meantime I could phone people again and I spoke to my mum. Which was good, cos I could let her know we were all fine.

After we found the car and we left, we got stuck in the mud, but there was a tractor coming they got us out of the mud and we could leave. Back to Holland. I fell asleep in the car. Ozzy stopped to phone his parents when we were just past Eindhoven. Then I had internet and I saw all the messages people had sent me on facebook and twitter.

I think I still didn’t realise how worried they were, but as I was still pretty excited, I thought it was a bit weird.  We had no clue really cos no-one told us anything really. We got home in Amsterdam at 1am. I put on the news to see what they were saying about the festival. We could also see some video’s, I still don’t understand why people were so worried. I replied to most people to let them all know we were safe, and that The Streets were safe. I think I still didn’t realise how serious it all was.

August 19th

The next day at 5 am I was dressed again to go to work. Ozzy dropped me off today, the day after… Now, I’m safe at work, and relaxed and warm and reading all these articles in the newspapers. I am getting a little bit emotional because of all this.

Also people at work who knew I was going, are asking how I’m doing. I can seriously cry. I know it sounds stupid. Was it my nan? Watching over me? My nan passed away on July 15th. Is she my guardian angel? OMG I miss her so much. I love her so much. My life will never be the same. She was like my 2nd mum.

Also Ozzy had a car accident, when he was driving home after he dropped me off.

He is OK!

On July 13th 2011 The D.O.T. have released Everything falls the same:

And Heart won’t bruise on July 20th 2011:

And on August 11th 2011 They released Been Searching: