Pukkelpop is Belgium's coolest alternative music festival , spread over 3 days and 8 stages , from Dance to Balkan , Rock and everything in between . We're here with 3 trailers of backline and 13 backline crew people . A great festival to close the summer season .

UPDATE : As you probably found out , what was supposed to be a great way to end the summer turned into a nightmare when a freakstorm hit the festival site on day one and killed 5 people , injured many more and pretty much destroyed half of the festival infrastructure . Me & my collegues are all allright , but my heart goes out to those wo were not so lucky .

Being a stagemanager at Belgium's largest dance festival Tomorrowland can take you to strange places . This year , the mainstage is decorated in true Alice in Wonderland style . Artists such as Faithless , Tiesto , 2ManyDJ's , David Guetta , Martin Solveig , Steve Aoki , etc will perform in the middle of this fairy landscape , complete with colorful fountains , fireworks & dancing elves ..... Technically this is a no brainer job , but it's a damn challenge to keep all those mad party people off my stage ..... what can I say ? ...... life is full of surprises .... :-) ....

Every summer I work the festival season for Kick Artist Services , Belgium's biggest backline rental company . We provide backline for most of Belgium's excellent festivals , and my job is to coöridnate the backline deliveries on the various stages on those festivals . This year I'm doing a world music festival in the heart of Brussels : Couleur Café , then Belgium's legendary and award winning maintream rock festival : Rock Werchter , and after that I'll be stage manager and backline provider for the reknown 10 day Gent Jazz festival .
As I help a lot of international touring artist with their backline , It's a great way to stay in touch with what's happening , get to learn a few new things , and stay in touch with all my Belgian techy friends as well .

Aha ... working in my own town : isn't that a luxury ? I live in a small town called Aarschot , and every year they have the "Osschotse Feesten" where I'm stagemanager . Lot's of local bands ( apart from headliner "The Sweet" ) , lot's of familiar faces , too many mojito's , and sleeping in my own bed every night .... lovely !

Pukkelpop is one of my favourite festivals in Belgium and also the last big one to finish of this summer . It’s alternative , refreshing , and you always see a couple of cool upcoming bands . Spread around 8 stages over 3 days , we’re sure to do some serious work here with a crew of 12 backlineres and 2 full trailers of gear .... Kraftwerk - the band that turned me into a synth freak back then - is playing here as well , so I hope to get the time to see a part of their show .

I’m stagemaneger at the mask shaped mainstage of the fantastic Tomorrowland techno & dance festival . The DJ booth is in the mouth of the mask , and the complete structure quiet simply looks stunning with a great lightshow , fountains , fireworks and flame throwers . The festival has no less than 11 stages going in different themes , there are swimming pools , jaccuzis & even an artificial ski slope on the site . Unfortunately I didn’t have time for all those goodies as I was busy preparing my stage for artists like Dada Life , Felix da Housecat , Moby , Armand van Helden , Paul Van Dyk , and many more ...

Check out this video of Moby’s grand finale with fireworks and apocalyptic lighting

Here we go again : every year I take position as stagemanager for this prestigious Gent Jazz festival in the great historical location De Bijloke . 9 Days of Jazz and crossover styles . Names like George Benson , Richard Galliano , Joe Jackson , BB King , Jamie Lidell , Rodrigo & Gabriela , Marianne Faithful , Jamie Cullem , and many classic jazz trios will be playing over a period of 9 days . It’s a truly great festival , with a nice and relaxed atmosphere , and I’v never seen an act here that I didn’t like .

Rock Werchter is Belgium’s biggest mainstream festival . Spread over 4 days and 2 stages they’re receiving over 80.000 people a day , and the lineup containes names like The Prodigy , Coldplay , Metallica , Royskopp , The Streets , Oasis , Lady Gaga , Grace Jones , Black Eyed Peas , Lilly Allen , Bloc Party , and many many more .... As most of these productions come with a full stage set including backline , our job is mainly to provide general backup backline for any malfunctioning equipment .
We’ve stacked our trailer with a variety of the most common vintage and modern instruments , spare parts and useful bits and bops .
The weather is great , and we’re waiting for things to happen .... I love it !

Couleur Café is a worldmusic festival in the heart of Brussels . With a crew of 6 backline techs we’ll be providing backline for bands like Zap Mama , Ozomatli , Khaled , Cubanisimo, Alpha Blondy , Emir Kusturica , Cesaria Evoria , RZA , and many others .... basically half of the festival lineup that is . We’ve got a trailer and a large truck full of gear , and we’re gonna get sweaty and dirty this time I’m sure ...

This is the first festival of this summer that I’ll be working for Kick Artist Services . This company provides rental backline for most Belgian festivals , and every year they hire me as a crewchief backline to run a few festivals . This one is 3 days of Afro Cuban & Latin music spread over 2 stages .
We’re here with 2 trucks of backline and 3 backline crew working in a very pleasant atmosphere and good conditions , allthough after 3 days full time exposure to this type of music I’m beginning to long for some good old fashioned rock&roll ... :-) ....

Pukkelpop is the last Festival of the Belgian summer festivals . It has 8 stages and goes on for 3 days . Kick Artist Services provides the festival with backline , and that basically means : move the complete warehouse stock to the pukkelpop site . The program has a very broad style : there’s dance , DJ’s , metal , rock , world , fanfare , ... you name it and it’s there . That means the backline needs to be there too . We have a few trailers on site as stock and around 15 people as crew . The atmosphere is great , and after the last day we symbolically celebrate the end of the festival season ..... yes that means : drinking and drinking and drinking ...... Ives Mergaerts , the owner of the backline company , is so kind to extend our hotel stay for 1 more day so we don’ have to drive home . Rock on Ives !!!

Another great job I’m doing for Kick Artist Services . I’ve been working for reggae sundance since the very first edition , and it’s really one of those festivals I wouldn’t want to miss . It’l located on a beack near a recreation pool , just across the border in Holland , where soft drugs are legal ..... you get the picture ... :-) ....
Mind you : it’s hard work ! We provide backline for every single band that plays there (Jamaican bands seem to travel without backline as a rule) . Especially the keyboard demands can be pretty extravagant , and with 10 bands a day you’re busy from the early morn until ..... JAH , RASTAFARI !!!

I’m stagemanager and backline coördinater at this nice little jazz festival . This is really one of the most relaxed festivals I know . It’s located in the middle of a historical site in Gent and the music is all top quality jazz or crossover . 3 shows a day , 10 days in a row .... what more do you want ?

Another Job for Kick Artist Services . The Werchter festival is Belgiums biggest mainstream festival , and for many years I’m part of the team , as crewchief backline . Lots of big names here , most of them with their own backline , so not so much to do here . A few smaller bands during the day but once the headliners start playing we’re packing up . We do have a vast collection of spares of all the major brands on site though , as well as a fine team of experienced backline techs

For years I’m working on this festival as a crew chief for the backline rental company : Kick Artist Services . Graspop Metal Meeting is Belgium’s biggest Metal festival . On the mainstage we have all the big metal acts , like Kiss , Iron Maiden , Whitesnake , etc .... They all come with their own production , so we stay out of there . The 2 marquee’s however is where all the underground bands are playing , so for us that’s where the action is . We provide backline for most of those bands , and backline for metalbands is A LOT of backline . Practically , this means we come with 2 trailers full of backline : 7 full drumkits with double bassdrums , 6 racktoms , a few floors , a dozen cymbalstands mounted on racksystems , 8 ampeg 810 stacks , around 40 marshall cabs , a dozen mesa cabs , a few dozen amp heads , and lots of spare ..... not a single percussion item though ...

Working for Kick Artist Services , providing the Afro Latino festival with backline for the major part of the line-up , including Shaggy .
I’ll get the change to see Shaggy’s MD again , with whom I worked previously on the NOTP tour and the Natalia concerts .