Festival Summer: Rock Werchter

Rock Werchter is probably the most known festival in Belgium, and probably one of the oldest as well. I’ve always evaded it up 'til now, but this year there were 2 acts I wouldn’t dare to miss. The first one being the synthpop band HURTS, the second being Linkin Park, whom were finally performing once more in Belgium after a long 10 years. (and who knows when they’ll come back again?)

Rock Werchter

Location: Werchter, Belgium

Date: 30 june 2011

Getting to Rock Werchter was a whole different thing though. Public transport was available from and to the festival site and was quite well organized, yet it couldn’t foresee in the huge amount of festivalgoers which were drumming to get inside the busses. Also, the busstop wasn’t exactly close to the festivalarea. The path was well secluded and auto free, but after a long trip in the scorching heat one could ask if it was too much to get a busstop next to the festivalsite. After another half hour I was finally inside, and it was huge! Certainly for a mere 2 stages.

Line-up

MAIN STAGE

01:00 - 02:30 THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS

22:35 - 00:15 LINKIN PARK

20:35 - 21:50 QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

19:00 - 20:00 ANOUK

17:30 - 18:30 THE HIVES

16:15 - 17:05 SEASICK STEVE

15:00 - 15:50 OFWGKTA

PYRAMID MARQUEE

00:55 - 01:55 HURTS

23:10 - 00:10 BEADY EYE

21:25 - 22:25 EELS

19:50 - 20:50 JAMES BLAKE

18:15 - 19:15 ALOE BLACC

16:45 - 17:45 TV ON THE RADIO

15:30 - 16:20 WARPAINT

After strolling around a bit I went to see Aloe Blacc in the Pyramid Marquee. Even though the style of the music didn't interest me that much I was very impressed by the quality of Blacc's voice: the man has got some serious soul. Of course everyone sang along with his big hit (at least in Belgium) "I need a dollar", but also the song "You make me smile" left quite an impression as Blacc asked everyone to grab a random stranger/friend by the hand and shout out his or her name. "[insert random name here], you make me smile!".

After that I went to meet up with a friend at the mainstage and missed out on James Blake (Limit to your love) at the Pyramid Marquee. I guessed Anouk (Killerbee, Nobody's wife) would make up for that loss at the mainstage but I was sadly mistaken. Sure enough she sung many of her known hits and her voice was nice, but it looked like she was standing there against her will and didn't really convince me and sadly... not a lot of other people either.

After Anouk it was time for the Queens of the Stone Age. Stoner rock is definately not my style, but I decided to stay because Linkin Park would be up next and I was sure the mainstage would get packed by then. All in all the Queens of the Stone Age didn’t interest me that much, but I can't deny that the lead singer had lots of charm, or as some others would say: he was one badass mother*bleep*.

Nostalgia and emotions

After the break I succeeded getting through the front gates of the secluded front area close to the mainstage with some of my friends to get a good view of the fine men of Linkin Park. Apparantly lots of people had the same idea as we got squeezed together, I just had about enough room to stick up my hands. The good part was that no matter how tired you were, the people next to you kept you in place, so snuggly! With 45 minutes tardiness the moment was finally there. The screens lightened up with stunning visuals and the first notes rocked through the gigantic speakercolumns. The band had lots of catching up to do for the past 10 years and they got that idea quite well. Even though they played a fair share of their new songs, loyal fans were rewarded with their most known hits of their first albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora... I think I died back then and went to heaven. Together with my friends I sung and screamed my throat soar until I was almost “Numb”. How could you not after hearing this?

       

                                                               Nostalgia, I love you.

With all the energy drained out of me from the performance of Linkin Park I stumbled back to the Pyramid Marquee, only to find it overcrowded with people. Slightly dissapointed I nestled myself on the ground outside to watch the big screen right before the entrance of the marquee. Totally cold. Alone. And in the rain. I saw that HURTS brought a small delegation of backgroundsingers and musicians with them to support the songs. Theo Hutchcraft looked also as slick and refined as ever. Chills ran down my spine as he sung “Silver Lining” and of course my favorite “Wonderful Life”. It made me a bit warmer. Well, inside at least.

The Chemical Brothers closed the mainstage with their "Block Rockin Beats", but it was a bit too cold to stay until the end. With my last energy I managed to get on the bus to the trainstation again after lots of waiting and managed to catch the earliest train home 2 hours later. Of course it was packed with people so I couldn't wait to get into my warm, comfortable bed again.

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The next and last review of my festival summer will be Tomorrowland, I hope you will look forward to it as much as I did to attend it! :)