Mol (19 – 23rd June)
Day 3 | Honourable Mentions | Exploring Turnhout | Travel | Accomodation
Time for the second part of the Graspop adventures. Feel free to read it all or skip through to travel to find out how to miss a plane even when arriving early at the airport.
In my previous post I talked about the acts I saw during the first couple days of the festival, accessibility of the grounds and local transport.
On this second installment I will share some more thoughts on music, as well as international travel and arranging accommodation during our time in Belgium.
Day 3
A day mostly spent either running around from stage to stage trying to catch new bands or finding shelter from the heat. By this time, we had also worked out sitting in the tiered area at the back of the main outdoor stages was the best way to catch some fresh air, escape the growing crowds and keep away from overly chatty drunk people.
Novelists
Novelists were a French progressive metalcore band I discovered in the past few months, then realised they were playing at Graspop. I loved how their music was refreshed after being joined by Camille Contreras on lead vocals.
I only managed to catch a few songs from their set. They were brilliant, full of energy, loaded with the powerful contrast typical of metalcore: catchy melodies that would suddenly flip into breakdowns.
Coda, one of the singles of their latest album, was a great example. It was fantastic to hear it live.
They really pulled out all the stops, will try to see them again if they play locally!
Imminence
Hailing from Sweden, Imminence style is a unique blend of djent, metalcore and alternative metal. I found out about them after comparing notes with another friend who was also coming to Graspop.
Their performance was mind-blowing. One moment Eddie Berg was going into a deep break down, the next he was playing the violin. It was heavy music equally filled with emotions.
My intention was to catch the whole set, however, the day was scorching hot, and the stage was getting packed and overwhelming, so I left after a few songs. I adored what I got to hear. One of my favourite discoveries of the festival. I have played their music often since then.
Korn
One of the pioneers of nu metal in the 90s, Korn were a band I mostly knew from their singles, especially Freak on a Leash and Falling Away from Me. I never really got into them, however, since they were one of the legends of the Graspop line up, I was curious to check them out.
I was impressed by some of their tracks and really enjoyed the set. The band had fantastic energy live and proved incredibly popular, judging by the sea of people that arrived to the festival for that time of the day.
Luckily, we managed to take shelter in a tiered seating area with a decent view of the screens. Glad I got to see them, even if they didn’t win me over.
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails were one of my all-time favourite bands, high on the list of acts I was looking forward to seeing. Over the last decade, I managed to catch two of their headline tours in the UK. This was my first time seeing them at a festival.
Since they were the last band on Saturday and we had to rush to catch the shuttle, the sensible thing was not to be at the front, besides it was too crowded. We stayed on the same location we were to see Korn.
The set included some deep cuts like The Perfect Drug (part of the soundtrack for Lost Highway) and I am Afraid of Americans (originally a collaboration with David Bowie). I never thought I would get to see these tracks live.
They also played classics like March of the Pigs, Closer and Head Like a Hole. Even after all these years, Trent still managed to unleash raw emotion with his signature voice. I loved that they concentrated on performing their heavier songs, which were still relevant and very necessary in today’s word.
This was one for the books! Very happy it was the last set I got to catch at Graspop.
Honourable Mentions
It was nearly impossible to talk about all the bands i got to see at Graspop. Some honourable mentions go to The Warning, I could only watch for a short while due to the heat during that day. I also enjoyed Jinjer, incredible growls by Tatiana and great energy on stage. Oomph! was a nice discovery from early Saturday. Great tunes and very engaging lead singer who ended up crowd surfing whilst belting one of the songs.
Behemoth performance was literally on fire! They locked themselves in a cage on top of the stage surrounded by pyrotechnics and played a good part of the set there. One to remember!
I also managed to catch bits of the sets from Carnation, Belgian death metal band who I checked out after getting home and really enjoyed, and The Hu, a great show although I much preferred their vibe in a smaller stage.
Exploring Turnhout
After 3 days of getting up early with little sleep and no time to rest, I decided to listen to my body and skip the last day of the festival. I would have loved to go, however, most of the bands I wanted to see were playing late at night. We had an early train to catch and a long trip to the airport plus connections back. I needed to make sure to be alert enough to get on the plane (more on that later).
I slept until almost noon, the main motivation to go out was grabbing some food. There were no restaurants close to the hotel, and I could not live purely off breakfast cereal. It gave me a chance to see a bit of the town where we were staying.
Turnhout was a small town in the border between Belgium and the Netherlands. From talking to a few of the taxi drivers in our time there, we learned most of the population usually worked in the Netherlands and live in Belgium. Graspop was a yearly occurrence the residents were familiar with. We had many people smiling and being friendly after spotting our metal t shirts in the previous days.
I decided to wander slowly through the streets without particular aim, other than eventually getting to the town center. It was not as straight forward as I expected. Some street crossings where only indicated by change in the pavement colour and dotted lines. There were no clear signs or landmarks that would help finding the way. As I continued to walk, a friend I made at the festival messaged about grabbing lunch. We soon agreed a meeting point. I had a route to follow. Talk about perfect timing!
We ended up eating somewhere in the central square that served Belgian food. We ordered a selection of croquettes, which reminded me of Dutch food, and shared a delicious Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce. The attraction of the restaurant was a band of mariachis, small world!
After lunch, I continued to walk through the streets. A lot of businesses were closed because it was Sunday. The town was quiet and had some picturesque corners, it became more pedestrian friendly around the area of the town centre. One of my favourite places was the train station. From the outside, it looked like it could have been a church.
Eventually, I got tired of walking and decided it was time to find something to take home for dinner. As luck would have it, I stumbled across a Japanese place offering takeaways. I quickly messaged one of my friends coming back from the festival that afternoon, we always end up having Japanese food in the most random places, and that’s exactly what we did on our last day in Belgium.
The restaurant had great air conditioning, perfect to escape from the heat whilst out takeaway was sorted, soon we were on our way back to the hotel.
I was glad to have challenged myself to go out and explore an unfamiliar place. It was certainly a confidence boost after all the changes in my sight in the last year.
Travel
- Graspop takes place in Dessel (Belgium), a municipality in the border with the Netherlands
- Closest airports are Brussels (Belgium), Brussels Charleroi (Belgium) and Eindhoven (Netherlands)
- Coaches to / from the airport can be organised via the festival’s website
- Information about buses, trains and bike routes are available on the travel section of the Graspop website
Traveling to Graspop from Birmingham was a bit of a challenge. Most of the affordable flights where split across different airlines, I had never traveled this way using assistance. Since one of the stopovers was Edinburgh, I decided to fly there, meet one of my friends, then get a connecting flight together. Once in Brussels, we’d meet another friend traveling from Manchester and head over to the festival.
I had an extra hurdle on my trip over. Lack of sleep and last-minute packing, (thanks ADHD), meant I was barely functional the morning of my flight. Ironically, I miscalculated how long it would take me to get to the airport and arrived more than two hours early.
Going through security was nice and easy, but I lost track of time getting food and finding a toilet, tiredness made it difficult to orientate myself at the passenger lounge. As a result, I wasn’t in the special assistance area when the agent who was taking me to the gate came to call me. It was too late when I realised, so I missed my first flight!
Not proud to say this but I became the very stressed passenger I have often seen in border control programmes. I had never missed a flight in the last 10 years using assistance. I worried about what would happen next and feared missing out on the festival all together.
Took a bit of waiting and talking to airport managers to figure things out. Unfortunately, since I was a ‘no show’, they would not refund my fare. On the positive side, they continued to support me in booking alternative flights.
Looking back, I wish they handled things differently. I had no way to know I missed the agent taking me to the gate. Special assistance area inside departures was unmanned. I did approach a member of staff to see if I had been called but they didn’t have the information and advised me to sit and wait. There were a few last calls for passengers in other flights, I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t one for mine.
Luckily, I managed to book a direct flight to Brussels that afternoon. Assistance liaised with the airline to ensure I would have support all the way, then took me through security, for a second time! Once there, I had to find a way to stay awake. No chance I was going to miss that plane!
Glad I had the Loop earplugs I use for concerts at hand. They helped immensely with blocking the noise from the passenger area. What didn’t I think of this before?
I was so happy once I finally met my friends in Belgium, we had just enough time to buy some dinner and jump on a train to Turnhout, where we would be staying during our time in Belgium.
The journey back to the UK was a long one too, far less eventful. I was glad to have listened to my body and skipped the last day of the festival to visit the town instead.
Accommodation
- Graspop offers accessible camping including toilets / facilities on campsites.
- Some facilities need to be requested in advance. More information on the festival’s website
- Chalets and rooms are available in Metal Park and Devil’s Lake. No information on accessibility supplied
- Festival accommodation as well as hotels / airbnbs in the area get booked quickly after tickets are released.
- It’s advisable to book accommodation as soon as tickets are booked
We initially planned to stay at one of the chalets offered by the festival which included daily shuttles to the grounds. Unfortunately, the most affordable ones sold out the day Graspop tickets went on sale.
After researching options on AirBnb / Booking.com over the coming weeks, we booked a nice place in the outskirts of Turnhout, a small town close to the festival grounds. We were advised by the owner one room would be enough for the group.
The place had two en-suite bathrooms and showers. At the back there was a large field and a stable with two pet donkeys.
There was a shared kitchen as well as tea and coffee. The owners were happy to provide some breakfast cereal after we requested it. Made it less of a rush to leave in the morning.
Most of the people staying there were also going to the festival, we had some good chats with a few of them and compared notes about the acts we were planning to see.
The only downside of the unit was that one of the showers was not working, we had to take it in turns to use the one that was.
Getting to and from the festival also became a bit of a challenge after our initial plan of renting a car fell through. On my previous post, I explained how we managed to resolve this.
Graspop turned out to be one of my craziest musical adventures to date. There was logistical chaos, hair raising moments and a fair bit of sleep deprivation and exhaustion. There were also beautifully shared memories made with my growing group of musical friends, loads of giggles, great food and plenty of fangirl moments, sprinkled with a good dose of music discoveries. I definitely caught the festival bug! Can’t wait for what next year brings!
These has been the most challenging couple of posts to put together since I started blogging. There was so much I wanted to share, I almost gave up. Happy to have persevered! Grateful to all the people who have commented and shared. It’s encouraging me to carry on. I shall be back soon with more concert tales!
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