The organisers of Pukkelpop are anticipating Covid developments as much as possible. Meanwhile the festival build-up is underway and the joint task forces with the competent authorities and safety experts are hard at work in a spirit of constructive collaboration to make Pukkelpop a textbook example of how to organise a Covid-proof mass event. The situation is being monitored round the clock as plans are fine-tuned and additional measures are taken wherever necessary. This is our approach in the run-up to the festival.  

Pukkelpop aims to create a safe festival environment through the combination of the Covid Safety Ticket (CST) and our own ticketing system, in which every festival ticket is registered in the owner’s name and an identity check is required to gain access to the festival site. Naturally it was always going to be easier for vaccinated festival-goers to enter the festival arena. Testing protocols are currently being perfected and more details will follow in the next few days. Needless to say those who have not (yet) been vaccinated will have to submit to testing. This means that depending on the duration of their visit, unvaccinated fans may be tested multiple times at the festival.  

The situation in other countries is different than in Flanders. Our region ranks among the star pupils in the European class with an exceptionally high vaccination rate. Hospital admissions and deaths continue to drop so Flanders is doing really well in that regard. The figures clearly show that vaccination is effective. Our youngsters are aware of this and the large majority are also opting for vaccination. Pukkelpop continues to support the vaccination effort because this is the way to defeat the virus and its variants. As stated above vaccination is also the fastest way to enter the festival site.  

So far 2021 hasn’t been business as usual but that’s nothing new. Still, this shouldn’t stop us from taking these crucial first steps in getting back to normal. Safety is our main headliner this year and further details will be announced in the upcoming weeks.