Rock Werchter

Location(s)	Werchter, Belgium
Years active	1974 - present
Founded by	Herman Schueremans
Date(s)	Thursday-Sunday around the beginning of July
Genre	Alternative rock, Rock, Pop
Website	http://www.rockwerchter.be

Rock Werchter is a Belgian annual music festival held in the village of Werchter, near Leuven, since 1973. It is one of the five biggest annual rock music festivals in Europe (the other four being Oxegen, 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 the 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 maximum 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 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 campsites are located along the three main entrance roads into 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. In 2011, for the first time, XL camping tickets are available, allowing festival goers to arrive and camp from 4pm on the Wednesday before the festival.^[2]

Until the 1990s the festival attracted mostly Flemish people, but in recent years it has become more and more international with an especially large influx of Dutch, French, Walloon, British and a notable Australian and South African contingent.^[3] Belgian alternatives remain in the Pukkelpop and Dour festivals.

History[link]

Rock Werchter 2010

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.

Inside Pyramid Marquee

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[link]

TW Classic[link]

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 after the main event. It usually programs veteran acts like Phil Collins, The Police, Depeche Mode or Simple Minds, supplemented with younger mainstream Belgian acts.

Werchter Boutique[link]

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 was 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 made one of his only 3 stops in Europe as the headliner.

Main Square Festival[link]

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[link]

Recent years[link]

2003[link]

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[link]

Muse at Werchter Festival 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[link]

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[link]

The Who at Werchter Festival 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, Superdiscount, Hard-Fi

2007[link]

2008[link]

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[link]

Day 1:
Main Stage: The Prodigy, Oasis, Placebo, Dave Matthews Band, 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, The 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[link]

2011[link]

Day 1:
Main Stage: Linkin Park, The Chemical Brothers, Queens Of The Stone Age, Anouk, The Hives, Seasick Steve and OFWGKTA
Pyramid Marquee: Hurts, Beady Eye, Eels, James Blake, Aloe Blacc, TV On The Radio and Warpaint
Day 2:
Main Stage: Kings of Leon, Arsenal, Arctic Monkeys, The National, White Lies, Triggerfinger, My Chemical Romance and Mona
Pyramid Marquee: The Subs, Goose, Chase and Status, Ozark Henry, Jimmy Eat World, Ke$ha, Lissie and Grouplove
Day 3:
Main Stage: Coldplay, Portishead, PJ Harvey, Elbow, Bruno Mars, The Gaslight Anthem and Rival Sons
Pyramid Marquee: Underworld, Magnetic Man, Selah Sue, Bright Eyes, I Blame Coco, Jenny and Johnny, The Pretty Reckless and Evaline
Day 4:
Main Stage: Iron Maiden, The Black Eyed Peas, A-Trak, Grinderman, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, Social Distortion and All Time Low
Pyramid Marquee: Digitalism, Robyn, Fleet Foxes, Brandon Flowers, Two Door Cinema Club, Tame Impala, The Vaccines and Everything Everything

2012[link]

	Thursday 28 June	Friday 29 June	Saturday 30 June	Sunday 1 July
Main Stage	Justice The Cure Elbow Blink-182 Rise Against Within Temptation The All-American Rejects	Deadmau5 Pearl Jam dEUS Wiz Khalifa X Mastodon Gossip Jack White	Editors Kasabian Wolfmother Black Box Revelation Mumford and Sons Chase & Status	Red Hot Chili Peppers Snow Patrol Florence + The Machine Dropkick Murphys The Vaccines Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
Pyramid Marquee	Skrillex Skream ft. Sgt. Pokes Amon Tobin Azealia Banks Netsky	Katy B DJ Fresh Birdy Nam Nam Calvin Harris Kreayshawn	James Vincent McMorrow Nneka M83 Ben Howard Paul Kalkbrenner	Steve Aoki Mac Miller
the barn	Garbage The Maccabees Selah Sue The Kooks	Beirut Katzenjammer Miles Kane Bat for Lashes School is Cool	Noah and the Whale My Morning Jacket Incubus	Anna Calvi James Morrison Milow Other Lives Kitty, Daisy & Lewis Ed Sheeran

External links[link]

• Official website
• Rock Werchter on Myspace

References[link]

Coordinates: 50°58′5″N 4°41′3″E / 50.96806°N 4.68417°E / 50.96806; 4.68417

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

Werchter is a small village in Belgium, belonging to the municipality of Rotselaar. It is site of the festival Rock Werchter. The origin of the place name is unknown but it's thought to be a watername.^[1] It is the birthplace of painter Cornelius Van Leemputten.

Coordinates: 50°58′N 4°42′E / 50.967°N 4.7°E / 50.967; 4.7

This Flemish Brabant location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e