The end of festival season is nearing, but that also meant it was time for this year’s Pukkelpop. From the 21st until the 23rd of August, Hasselt was over by this year’s festival goers. With around 66 thousand visitors a day, 8 stages and some debatable weather, there’s no better way to end the festival summer.
The Wave tent saw some iconic pop girls stop by, starting with Alessi Rose on Friday. With a beautiful stained glass like backdrop, she entertained the crowd with songs such as “imsochillandcool,” “Dependent” and “oh my.” On Saturday, Audrey Hobert and Natasha Bedingfield were up, both having some iconic songs that everyone could sing along to. Audrey Hobert left an impression, showing up in a long trench coat while standing on stairs and bringing out a mini trampoline for the hit song “Sue Me.” She played the song twice, asking the crowd to put away their phones for one of them to make sure they could really enjoy the moment instead of watching through their phone screen. Later that day Natasha Bedingfield made the Wave tent spill out, with a big group of people standing outside the tent watching on the screen hung outside. “Pocketful of Sunshine” and “Unwritten” are songs that have become so iconic, you really should experience them live at least once in your lifetime. The whole crowd sang along as loud as they could, completely letting loose.
A certain pink haired girl made her way to the Wave stage on Sunday, starting early at 1.30 PM. The tent was filling up nicely, as ADÉLA deserved with her performance. With dancers and a ballet bar at the back of the stage, our interest peaked. With her recent release, “Ain’t In LA,” she is the first artist from Slovakia to chart in the Billboard Top 100. She also has this cute thing with pink shirts specially made for her shows. Her crew handed out some of the shirts, saying “The Baddest Bitches Are In Belgium.”
With a tough choice between clashing sets of Audrey Hobert, Royal Blood and Nxdia, the latter unfortunately did not fill the tent as much as they deserved. The Egyptian-Sudanese singer knows how to put on a show, and turned the heat at the Lift Stage up a notch. They liked to talk to the crowd, bonding with the fans instead of just playing songs back to back. With not just one, but two songs, “Body On Me” and “More,” in Prime series Off Campus, those were also the ones that were sung along a bit louder than the rest.
Throughout the weekend The Backyard Stage generally housed the heavier bands on the line-up. After Feverchild, opened the stage with their alt-rock, Maria Iskariot was up next to show the crowd their energy. On Saturday, Teen Mortgage took over The Backyard. Teen Mortgage consists of guitarist/vocalist James Guile and drummer Ed Barkauskas. Even with just two people on the stage, the punk rock duo showed they did not need anymore people to put on a great show.
Ploegendienst coming from neighbouring country The Netherlands, with a Dutch flag as backdrop, gave the crowd a taste of the Dutch punk scene. If you have ever been to a Trash Talk show before, you know it gets crazy real fast. For the people that just wandered by, they surely got a taste of the band within the first song. Frontman Lee Spielman quickly jumped off the stage, climbing over the barrier and joining the crowd. With these actions you might expect a wireless microphone to be used, but the crowd just had to watch out to not trip on the cable instead. Even a guy in a wheelchair joined in, both crowdsurfing when he got the chance and driving around in the circle pit. He even lost his tire off his wheel, after which Spielman of course took the chance to tell the rest of the crowd they could go crazier, since this man in a wheelchair was going crazy as well.
Over at the Club Tent, the line-up consisted of a mix of genres. From the calm and soulful Hudson Freeman, to the fierce set from Lambrini Girls. However if we have to pick the one band that left the most lasting impression, the prize goes to Gurriers from Dublin, Ireland. The Irish band got the crowd moving from the second their set started, with both the singer and bassist taking turns jumping into the crowd as well. Both the Boiler and Booth housed some great DJ’s over the weekend, also going on the longest until 4AM. So if you wanted to enjoy more dancing and having fun after watching the headliners, there was plenty more to enjoy.
The Marquee was also filled with a line-up for everyone to love, jumping from Geese to The Hives, and from Wunderhorse to Denzel Curry. Kelis, who happened to be celebrating her birthday that day, of course played her iconic song “Milkshake.” Both The Hives and Amyl And The Sniffers left some impressions, with their high energy performances. The Hives showed up in their suits, which partly lit up. Singer Per Almqvist was jumping around, even putting a monitor on its side to stand on it and jump off again. He also could not be contained on stage, running along the barrier multiple times throughout their set. Almqvist did not just give a musical performance, he also liked to joke around, stating that the band is “40 thousand years old and play at least 2 shows a year.” Normally he would also learn something to say in the language of the country they are in, but since Belgium is split into two parts and speaks both Flemish (Dutch) and French he decided to just go with English.
The Mainstage was graced by a variety of genres these three days. Joe Keery, mostly known for his role as Steve Harrington in Netflix series Stranger Things and as DJO with his hit song “End of Beginning,” was running around the stage, going up to the end of the catwalk multiple times. Later in the day as the sun had set, it was now time for Turnstile to take over the mainstage. With the calm start of “NEVER ENOUGH” pretty early on in the set, Turnstile woke up the crowd pretty quickly and did not give them any time to take it easy after that. The crowd went craziest for “BLACKOUT” and “BIRDS.”
Wet Leg have been on a roll, from Harry Styles covering their song “Wet Dream” and being supported on his tour, the band has grown both in fanbase as well as as a band. Fans can’t wait to see what kind of outfit frontwoman Rhian Teasdale shows up in. With Teasdale’s iconic pose showing off her muscles, they quickly captured the attention from everyone in attendance. While fans loved hearing “Wet Dream,” other hit songs such as “Chaise Longue” and “mangetout” also made their way onto the setlist.
With their big comeback at last year’s Pukkelpop, Belgium band Bazart now took on the main stage. Full of energy they gave the crowd a performance to remember, playing songs such as “Nacht In Amsterdam,” “Hou Mij Vast” and “Nooduitgang.”
Pop queen of the moment, Zara Larsson, also made her appearance on the last day of the festival. While the weather has been rainy and cloudy, she made the sun appear for most of the day. After “Ain’t My Fault” the backscreen showed a ‘hoe cam’ encouraging the crowd to shake their ass. After that fun moment ended, it was time for the dancers to take over the spotlight, having their own roll call where they introduce themselves and each get a moment to shine. While the set started with “Midnight Sun,” which includes the iconic dolphin lift, the set also ended with the extended version of the song. During this multiple people in the crowd got lifted into the air, mimicking the dolphin pose. Zara could not keep her laughter in, demanding more people to get lifted in the air like that. With the sun shining brightly and a laughing Zara on stage, the set could not have ended on a better note.
While some people might not know sombr, they surely have heard some of his songs before. He started his set with “We Never Dated,” which you might know from the Prime series Off Campus. The 21 year old put on a great performance, having fun with his band mates and running to the end of the catwalk. The sun was setting during his slot, creating a beautiful backdrop. During “Back To Friends” the singer draped a Belgian flag around him, at the end of the song a black flag was brought onto the stage, on which he graffitied ‘sombr ♡ belgium’. With the flag he jumped off the stage and ran along the barrier, hugging and high-fiving fans.
This year’s headliners were Yungblud, Florence + The Machine and Tyler, The Creator. With each bringing in a different genre of music, the line-up was really put together with all music genres in mind. Yungblud brought his pure rock energy, even a broken leg can’t keep him away from the stage, while Florence + The Machine captured the crowd with their indie and witchy style. Ending the festival, the hip-hop fans got treated to no one less than Tyler, The Creator.
With another successful edition of Pukkelpop, we cannot wait to see what gems they will bring in for next year’s line-up. Next year’s edition will be held from August 19th until the 22nd and tickets are not yet on sale.
GALLERY: Pukkelpop 2026 in Hasselt, Belgium (August 21-23, 2026)
