Rock Werchter
| Rock Werchter | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Alternative rock, Rock, Pop |
| Dates | Thursday-Sunday around the beginning of July |
| Location(s) | Werchter, Belgium |
| Years active | 1974 - present |
| Founders | Herman Schueremans |
| Website | http://www.rockwerchter.be |
Rock Werchter is a Belgian annual music festival held in the village of Werchter, near Brussels, since 1974. It is one of the four biggest annual rock music festivals in Europe (the other three being the Sziget Festival, the Glastonbury Festival and Roskilde Festival). The 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007 festivals received the Arthur award for best festival in the world at International Live Music Conference (ILMC). It can host 80.000 guests, of which 69.000 combine all four days, to add up to a total of 113.000 different attendees.
The festival started in 1974 as a one-day event with performances from Banzai and Kandahar, but over the years it has evolved to become Belgium's largest music festival. Originally it was a double-festival, called "Torhout-Werchter", with two festival areas at different sites in Belgium: one in Werchter and one in Torhout. In 1999, the festival dropped the Torhout site and since then has taken place only in Werchter. Since 2003 Werchter has been a 4-day festival, as it was sold by owner Herman Schueremans to American organizers Live Nation. Schueremans however remains the main organiser of the event. The festival is organised every first weekend of the summer vacation in Belgium (last weekend of June or the first of July). Roskilde festival and the Arras Main Square Festival are almost always organised in the same weekend, so they can 'share' bands. Sometimes, the Glastonbury Festival is organised at the same weekend, but most of the years it's organised a weekend earlier.
In recent years, there has been controversy about rising ticket prices. Because of this, Schueremans was heckled during an appearance on HUMO's Pop Poll, a Belgian alternative award show. At 169€ for four days (17€ extra to include camping) in 2008 it is considered a relatively inexpensive music festival.[1]
The camping sites officially open at 8am on the first day of the festival, but because of guests arriving early and camping on the street, the organizers have traditionally been forced to open the camping sites early - sometimes more than 24 hours. The campings are located along the three main entrance road in Werchter (from Haacht, Aarschot and Leuven), most of them within 1 kilometer of the festival site but some located as far as 3 kilometers away.
Until the 1990s the festival attracted mostly Flemish and few Dutch people, but in recent years it has become more and more international (with an especially large influx of Dutch people, Walloons and British). Belgian alternatives remain in the Pukkelpop and Dour festivals.
History
The festival started off as a one-day event, became a two-day festival in 1996, a 3-day festival in 2000, and has been a 4-day festival since 2003.
Before 1995, when the festival was still a double-festival, it had one stage with 8 or 9 bands performing twice, once in Torhout and once in Werchter. Since 1995 the Main stage was accompanied by a second stage. This stage was an open air stage until 1999 when it was made a tent named 'Pyramid Marquee', with a capacity of 6,000 people. The performers in Pyramid Marquee are usually lesser-known or aimed at a specific audience. Sometimes groups that do well in Pyramid Marquee are expected to have a hard time taking the step to the Main stage, especially when they are seen as an act needing intimate, smaller venues. Sigur Rós is the most famous example of this, when they were programmed on Main Stage in 2008 after their 2006 performance in Pyramid Marquee, but they managed the transition and were hailed as one the best performances of the festival.
The bands presented at Rock Werchter are traditionally a balanced mix of large well known artists, popular crowd-pleasing acts and local Belgian coming acts. Belgian band dEUS in 2008 was the first local band to close the Main Stage on the last day since several years. The days usually start around noon, except for the first day, which starts around 4pm. Most performances last from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. The days end around 1am, but when the last act is a dance act they sometimes last until 3am or later. At the end of the last day there is a big fireworks show.
Satellite festivals
TW Classic
Since 2002, the organizers created TW Classic as a tribute to the early days of Rock Werchter. TW Classic ('TW' as in Torhout-Werchter, is the traditional abbreviation of the festival) is a one day/one stage festival held one week before the main event. It usually programs veteran acts like Phil Collins, The Police or Simple Minds, supplemented with younger mainstream Belgian acts.
Werchter Boutique
This new festival was created in 2008 and organised one week after the main festival. It mainly aims at complete families with acts for children, teenagers as well as adults. The main acts in 2008 were Tokio Hotel, Santana and Doe Maar. In 2009 it will be centered around a concert of Madonna during her Sticky & Sweet Tour. 68,000 tickets were sold for the concert, making it an incredible one-day sell-out event. In 2010 Prince will make one of his only 3 stops in Europe as the headliner.
Main Square Festival
Since 2008, the organisers created a small version of Rock Werchter on the central square of Arras, in northern France. It is held on the same dates as Rock Werchter, with a similar line-up - which is an advantage for organisers as they can offer artists two shows instead of one. Arras was chosen as a location because of its large historic central square and because of the lack of big rock festivals in France.
Festival by year
Recent years
2003
Day 1: Underworld, Radiohead, Björk
Day 2: Massive Attack, Moby, Ozark Henry, The Roots, Feeder, Morgan Heritage, The Polyphonic Spree
Day 3: Metallica, Arno, Queens of the Stone Age, Anouk, Xzibit, Millionaire, Stone Sour, 't Hof van Commerce, Krezip
Day 4: R.E.M., Coldplay, Counting Crows, Cypress Hill, The Cardigans, Supergrass, Stereophonics, De la Soul, Das Pop
2004
Day 1: Basement Jaxx, The Cure, Pink, Sean Paul, Michael Franti & Spearhead
Day 2: Metallica, KoЯn, The Darkness, Dropkick Murphys, Monster Magnet, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Lostprophets
Day 3: Lenny Kravitz, Muse, Moloko, Wu-Tang Clan, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, The Black Eyed Peas, Within Temptation, Heideroosjes, The Rasmus
Day 4: 2 Many DJ's, Placebo, Pixies, PJ Harvey, Lamb, Starsailor, Zornik, Danko Jones
David Bowie was meant to headline the festival but had to cancel.
2005
Day 1: The Chemical Brothers, Kraftwerk, Snoop Dogg, Ozark Henry, New Order, The Bravery
Day 2: Faithless, Green Day, Velvet Revolver, Garbage, Within Temptation, Jimmy Eat World, K.T. Tunstall, Simple Plan
Day 3: Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails, Audioslave, The Game, 't Hof van Commerce, Daan, Pennywise, Therapy?
Day 4: R.E.M., Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Soulwax, Keane, Feeder, Kane, Flogging Molly
2006
Day 1: Matisyahu, Deftones, Manu Chao Radio Bemba Sound System, Kaizers Orchestra, Death Cab for Cutie, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Eyed Peas, Tool, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, The Streets, Roger Sanchez
Day 2: The Who, Muse, Skin, Kanye West, Editors, Live, Anouk.
The Kooks, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Elbow, Mogwai, Radio Soulwax presents: Vitalic, Soulwax Nite Versions, Tiga, 2 Many DJ's
Day 3: Wolfmother, Arsenal, Kelis, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, Placebo, dEUS, Donavon Frankenreiter, Arctic Monkeys, Goldfrapp, Sigur Rós
Day 4: Absynthe Minded, Eels, Starsailor, Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Hooverphonic, Depeche Mode, Collective Soul, Bettye LaVette, An Pierlé & White Velvet, Laurent Garnier & Bugge Wesseltoft featuring Philippe Nadaud, Super Discount, Hard-Fi
2007
Day 1:
Main Stage: Billy Talent, Zornik, My Chemical Romance, Marilyn Manson, Björk, Muse
Pyramid Marquee: Milow, Air Traffic, Air, Rufus Wainwright, Beastie Boys, Dr. Lektroluv
Day 2:
Main Stage: The Van Jets, Enter Shikari, Kings of Leon, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys, Pearl Jam
Pyramid Marquee: Jason Mraz, Oi Va Voi, Joan As Policewoman, Sioen, Lily Allen, Admiral Freebee, Satellite Party, Gabriel Ríos
Day 3:
Main Stage: Heideroosjes, Razorlight, Amy Winehouse, Snow Patrol, The Killers, Peter Gabriel, Keane, The Chemical Brothers
Pyramid Marquee: The Bravery, The Hold Steady, Blonde Redhead, Klaxons, Goose, Arno, The Good, the Bad and the Queen, LCD Soundsystem
Day 4:
Main Stage: !!!, Mastodon, The Kooks, Interpol, Incubus, Metallica, Faithless
Pyramid Marquee: Stijn, Cold War Kids, Maxïmo Park, John Legend, Frank Black, Damien Rice, The Australian Pink Floyd Show, Tori Amos
2008
Day 1:
Main Stage: The Chemical Brothers, R.E.M., Lenny Kravitz, Mika, Counting Crows, Air Traffic
Pyramid Marquee: 2manydjs, Soulwax, Shameboy, The National, Vampire Weekend, Modern Skirts
Day 2:
Main Stage: Moby, Neil Young, The Verve, Jay-Z, Babyshambles, Slayer, Monza, The Black Box Revelation
Pyramid Marquee: Digitalism, Hot Chip, Zita Swoon, Duffy, My Morning Jacket, Ben Folds, Patrick Watson, The Cool Kids
Babyshambles canceled and were replaced by Air Traffic.
Day 3:
Main Stage: Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Kings of Leon, Editors, The Hives, Gossip, The Whigs
Pyramid Marquee: Róisín Murphy, Gnarls Barkley, MGMT, Kate Nash, KT Tunstall, Galactic, Band of Horses, Donavon Frankenreiter
Day 4:
Main Stage: dEUS, The Black Box Revelation, Anouk, Beck, Kaiser Chiefs, The Raconteurs, The Kooks, Panic at the Disco, The John Butler Trio
Pyramid Marquee: Nightwish, Underworld, Justice, Grinderman, Mark Ronson, Hercules and Love Affair, Tim Vanhamel, DeVotchKa
2009
Day 1:
Main Stage: Oasis, The Prodigy, Placebo, Dave Matthews, Lily Allen, Eagles of Death Metal
Pyramid Marquee: Tiga, Pendulum, Laurent Garnier, Fleet Foxes, Emiliana Torrini, Expatriate
Day 2:
Main Stage: Coldplay, The Killers, Bloc Party, Elbow, Amy Macdonald, White Lies, Just Jack
Pyramid Marquee: Lady Gaga, Arsenal, Jason Mraz, The Streets, M.Ward, Priscilla Ahn, Henry Rollins - Spoken Word
Day 3:
Main Stage: 2ManyDjs, Kings of Leon, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Franz Ferdinand, Limp Bizkit, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Social Distortion, Triggerfinger
Pyramid Marquee: Boys Noize, Grace Jones, Katy Perry, Mogwai, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Regina Spektor, Jasper Erkens
Day 4:
Main Stage: Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Kaiser Chiefs, Black Eyed Peas, The Mars Volta, Seasick Steve, Mastodon, Metro Station
Pyramid Marquee: Milk Inc, Röyksopp, Ghinzu, The Script, Lady Linn & Her Magnificent Seven, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, The Hickey Underworld
2010
Starting December 7 one name was confirmed every day for five days, leading up to the start of the ticket pre-sale. Since the 29th of April 2010, the line-up looks like this:
Day 1 (Thursday, July 1):
Main Stage: Faithless, Muse, Stereophonics, Phoenix, Skunk Anansie and De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig
Pyramid Marquee: Crookers, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77, La Roux, The XX, Midlake, Kyteman's HipHop Orchestra
Day 2 (Friday, July 2):
Main Stage: Green Day, Editors, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Paramore, Rise Against, Coheed And Cambria
Pyramid Marquee: LCD Soundsystem, The Specials, Jack Johnson, The Gaslight Anthem
Day 3 (Saturday, July 3):
Main Stage: Rammstein, P!nk, The Ting Tings, Gossip, Channel Zero, Das Pop, Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders
Pyramid Marquee: Booka Shade, Empire of the Sun, Florence + the Machine, Porcupine Tree, Yeasayer, The Temper Trap, Delphic
Day 4 (Sunday, July 4):
Main Stage: Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Alice in Chains, Wolfmother
Pyramid Marquee: Vitalic: V Mirror Live, The Black Box Revelation, Dirty Projectors, The Black Keys, Gomez, Absynthe Minded