A few years ago, I was in Europe around the time of the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium. I never made it, but I also never took myself off their email list. So today I got their full lineup and man oh man, does it ever look like a big year for outdoor fests across the pond. First (as noted by Peter) Glastonbury and Primavera (eager to ask Chad VanG or the guys from Women about this, especially the meltown of Capt. Shitty-songs himself,) now Pukkelpop comes along with their best lineup in years.

Srsly, I'm not going to do a blow-by-blow of which lineups are better and why, but if you ask me, all 3 of these beat the pants off any of the destination fests in North America this summer. As far as Pukkelpop is concerned, look at the breadth! You've got the Deftones and Faith No More (!!) going up against Eric Prydz and (omg) Zombie Nation, with Andrew Bird on the undercard, and that's just Thursday! Other probable highlights: Bill Callahan, Squarepusher, Fever Ray, Hank III (??), Tortoise, Dinosaur Jr., N*E*R*D... Man, the list goes on. And you know you'd go see 50 Cent.

Another thing that just blows me away is the fact that when you buy a festival pass (quite reasonable at €135,) not only does it include your camping fee (expect to pay an extra $100 or so for this at a festival like Coachella,) it also includes ground transportation to the festival gate from any train station in the country. Excuse me please?

"On presentation of your festival ticket you can travel for free from any Belgian train station to Hasselt or Kiewit Station and back. Between Hasselt Station and the Pukkelpop site De Lijn will provide a permanent fast bus service. The bus fare is also included in your ticket."

Shut up, Europe. Just. Shut. Up.