‘We would have liked nothing more than to welcome metal fans from all over the world to Dessel in June, but unfortunately that will not be possible. The safety of visitors, crew and artists is always our biggest concern ‘, it says in a press release. All tickets purchased for the edition planned this year are valid for next year.

Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel is one of the largest metal festivals in Europe with 40,000 visitors a day. The 25th edition – virtually a copy of last year’s canceled edition – was scheduled for the weekend of June 17th. It is the first major Belgian festival to also cancel this year’s edition.

Earlier this week, Best Kept Secret in the Netherlands also canceled the weekend for Graspop. The ‘big three’ in our country – Rock Werchter, Pukkelpop and Tomorrowland – will remain upright for the time being. The question, however, is for how long. ‘We will continue to work on the planned weekend’, Nele Bigare of Rock Werchter responds. The authorities have indicated that they will provide an explanation by mid-March at the latest. We look ahead with confidence. ‘

That is also the attitude of Pukkelpop, reports spokesman Frederik Luyten. “We don’t want to speculate yet, because the situation can change very quickly,” he said. ‘But since the festival is only planned for the end of August (19-22 August, ed.), We will get a little more space, especially if the vaccination campaign is going well.

Although the two weekends of Tomorrowland would already fall in mid-July, 16 to 18 July and 23 to 25 July, the organization of the popular dance festival will not change the current schedule. “We still assume the first situation, a festival like normal,” said spokesman Debby Wilmsen. So it remains to be seen for the three festivals what the government will decide in the coming weeks.

The Flemish government announced this week that it would clarify the festival summer by the beginning of March.