The bloke off the internet, on 24 August 2011 - 12:40 AM, said:

stop bitching. I never said they knew but given the cirsumstances there was a high probability of the storm coming not being a simple light summer storm but something heavier.

why is it that you always seem to have an opinion different from that of others here? is it because you're french? did you have a hard childhood and now need this forum to compensate for? is it cos your hairdresser lost her scissors in your fur and never could go on cutting which has brought you into an evil vicious circle?

BoywiththeGoldenEyes, on 24 August 2011 - 9:18 AM, said:

You got a point there

BoywiththeGoldenEyes, on 24 August 2011 - 9:18 AM, said:

I think he is right.
Belgium is a small state, you can't predict storms like you can in the US where they monitor them and everything.
Usually these storms form very quickly, pass and die out very quickly. It was a horrible coincidence that it happened on the same place at the same time as the festival.

There wasn't much Pukkelpop organisors could do.

igorchete, on 24 August 2011 - 11:06 AM, said:

igorchete, you ignore the facts. there was a storm warning not only by belgian but also french, dutch, british, german and european authorities, predicting a heavy storm with top wind speed of far more than a 100 km an hour. this warning was also being published for the respective area in belgium.
also, why shouldn't small states be able to forecast rough weather? ever heard about such a thing as european cooperation??? this is one of the thingsd we've got the EU for - and in this cases it even works.

Boy, I know your hate towards festivals, and I'm sure you would like every one of them to be cancelled, but even heavy storm warnings are NOT a rare thing. It often occurs at festivals, organizers are used to that. Also, the cancellation of a festival (even of a single day) is a decision that has to be taken at least weeks before the event, a few days before is generally too late, especially if it's based on a "high probability" of heavy storm, which doesn't always kill people.
Of course we can say that it would have been better if they had cancelled before, but they just couldn't predict the consequences would be so dramatic.

The bloke off the internet, on 24 August 2011 - 1:02 PM, said:

alright man, I am telling you something. I LOVE festivals, I always have, and you don't know a shit about me, so you better shut it. I have once said festival gigs don't really count when compared to proper full-length (indoor) gigs and I stick with that, but I have been to more festivals than you'll probably ever going to get to and I am more than happy to go to festivals still for many reasons.
and a second thing: I have worked in gig and festival booking for 5 years and I know about the business. it is all about profit-making in most cases. safety is not always taken into account as much as needs to. no one is happy to partly cancel a festival as it could lead to trouble with the artists and their agencies, sponsoring and media partners and the festivalgoers. still, in my opinion, in exceptional cases a cancellation needs to happen. and if national and european meteo forecasts such wind speeds, than it is careless to say "we're going on". organizers have gone on with last year's love parade - 20+ dead. organizers have gone on with pukkelpop saying no one could have expected such a storm - bullshit! 5 dead. they will have to face the consequences and we will see whether PP is to share fate with the love parade. certain security measures and consequences (barriers etc.) have only been taken after people have died. otherwise no one would care. people like you support such an attitude, and this is a shame.
I have never said cancel cancel cancel - such a measure must always be proportional to satisfy as many needs as possible. fact: 5 young belgians could be alive still and enjoy another PP next year - which might now never happen again.

You can't compare with last year's love parade, the circumstances were totally different. People died in a stampede that was clearly due to a bad organization (small place, bridges and stuff). Pukkelpop organizers are not responsible for the weather, it's almost force majeure.
I agree with you when you say it's all about the money, but it's not always a case of greed, I mean cancelling such a big festival at the last minute would cost a lot, it's not a decision that can be taken on a whim, just because the morning forecast said there will be a storm. Obviously, now they will have to pay even more, they just wanted to take the risk, is it so bad ?
I mean if you were in their shoes, you would have cancelled as soon as you'd heard about the storm, you'd have been right, I would have preferred to take the risk, I would have been wrong. Not everyone reacts the same way. But what if the storm weren't so devastating after all ? I'm pretty sure that's what they wondered when they heard about the storm (if they did).

But it's stupid to argue on this point, none of us was at the festival so who are we to judge...From what I know, a lot of those who were there sent all their support to the organizers after the disaster, some even proposed to help clean the place. I guess they admit it's not the organizers' fault.