This was our first European musical festival, and it was quite an experience. The scale is much bigger than any US festival that I've been too, and the crowd was more diverse. It was a good experience seeing one of my favorite bands, but I feel like things could have run better considering the steep price of the ticket.
We took the shuttle from Leuven and were surprised how far (more than 2km) we had to walk to the entrance. The security line was a disaster and near chaos. I was afraid that someone would be trampled. It took more than 45 minutes to get through, and we ended up missing the first few songs of the Prophets of Rage set.
Crowd management was executed pretty poorly. For example, there were very long lines for the food tokens at one spot, but the next area had no one in line. It would have been nice for someone to direct people over to that area. I also think more money should have been spent on custodians. I only saw one person picking up trash during the time we were there. Trash was overflowing everywhere. There was a promotion offering a free drink to people turning in 20 cups so that helped some. The bathroom lines were fine, but I'm surprised we had to pay for toilets by the campgrounds. Why weren't those included?
I've definitely had better food at a festival (I heart you, Gov Ball), but the beverages were pretty cheap and tasty. One of the pluses of being in Belgium. read more