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(That’s what gazza was referring to - it’s from Ken on the rock Werchter page)   Forest fires in LA have shaken some things up. Some artists have delayed their tour until 2026. One of the reasons we are still waiting for new announcements.  Other reason: sales are running very smoothly. Even the saturday, because yeah, it is the Saturday and other days are sold out. Combi’s will sell out too. No pressure to announce early January.    Not a good evolution futurewise to get the best possible line ups. Pukkelpop is the same. Difficult times for the small Belgian festivals, but not for the big ones.   But… normally very soon more news. 

I’m thinking Meshuggah 4th main Sunday. 

(from Ken on the RW page - wonder who he means)   Forest fires in LA have shaken some things up. Some artists have delayed their tour until 2026. One of the reasons we are still waiting for new announcements.  Other reason: sales are running very smoothly. Even the saturday, because yeah, it is the Saturday and other days are sold out. Combi’s will sell out too. No pressure to announce early January.    Not a good evolution futurewise to get the best possible line ups. Pukkelpop is the same. Difficult times for the small Belgian festivals, but not for the big ones.   But… normally very soon more news. 

Positive reactions to individual headliner announcements on Instagram:   Anyma - 2,630   Charli - 6,047   Post - 8,181   Shawn - 10,997   Chappell - 11,665   Rocky - 11,904   Line-up update poster - 23,191      

We are on the same page. My point is just that on top of festival's desire/need to have strong medium names given the strong sales, there's also an economic factor as well. As the festivals have certain capacity and prices are going up at moderate rate (compared to artist costs) the pool of money available for undercards is shrinking because headliners are taking much bigger share vs. in the past.