Rock Werchter 2017

[stiltzkin]

19 hours ago, neacaisa said:

First of all, i don't know who deleted the loners camp threa, i would have made this post on that one as it was more suited there.

i want to thank all the guys involved in the whatsapp group and the camp we made on the hive: ryan and paddy for stepping in at the right time and organizing the whole thing and all the other guys i met and spend a lot of time at the shows and in the camp: will, cath, alex, bogdan, johnny, james and jess, ishan and his buddies, matt, silviu, bogdan, dave, mario, mustafa, josh. I hope i haven't forgotten anybody.

I recommend the whole loners camp experience to anybody that really wants to do a festival but has no other friends willing to commit. If you have the opportunity, do it, you won't regret it.

I will come back tommorrow with a detailed review of the festival itself.

 

1 hour ago, Jimmerz95 said:

Here here Vali, it was great. Very proud of the experience all of us "loners" had  

Amen. Great group.

[BlockRockinBeats]

21 hours ago, thetechi said:

Completely agree with @Red Day about the diverse tastes.

I'm so surprised you were disappointed with Nathaniel! I really thought he and the band put 100% into their show!

I love Rateliff. Seen him a tonne of times.

I think he got a bit lost on the main stage to be honest.Would have been better in the barn.

He wasn't bad, but I found the set a bit disappointing in comparison to the other times I've seen him. 

[SilverLining]

Well after having just got home I'm completely disappointed with this festival for a vast number of reasons and definitely won't be attending again.

The crowd was embarrassingly bad ALL WEEKEND which a lot of acts did actually comment on, even a band as charismatic as the Foo Fighters got little to no engagement from the crowd.

The camping, even in the Hive was shocking, We arrived at 9pm with a 5 man tent and there was absolutely no space, I asked three different stewards to help us find a space. Two laughed at us and then walked off without saying anything else. I asked one to radio to someone in the campsite if they could ask if there was a free zone and he just told me he wasn't going to do that just because I wanted to him to. Luckily a young steward went out of his way to ask people with a gazebo to make room for us and we managed to fit in.

The staff overall were overwhelmingly rude and unhelpful in most aspects of the festival too.

The pricing was daylight robbery and Ive been to a lot of pricey gigs and festivals. Can someone explain why the Hive camping kept flashing up that 'toilet facilities are free of charge' like they were doing us a favour to let us use the toilet.

the H20 points had obviously nothing done to fix them, I also don't understand how a festival with that many people attending can't even make stages big enough to let people in to see a band they've paid over the odds to go and see. ITS THE SOLE PURPOSE OF A MUSIC FESTIVAL.

Some of the bands the sound was shocking for, the levels would consistently fluctuate making some performances seem off.

Its now apparent that RW is just a money making exercise. I thought before we went with a line-up with that many large names topping the bill it wouldnt be that bad but the crowd sucked the life out of a majority of the acts.

hate to be negative about things but this festival cares nothing for its audience only its back pocket.
 

Edited July 5, 2017 by SilverLining

[Ryann]

6 minutes ago, SilverLining said:

Well after having just got home I'm completely disappointed with this festival for a vast number of reasons and definitely won't be attending again.

The crowd was embarrassingly bad ALL WEEKEND which a lot of acts did actually comment on, even a band as charismatic as the Foo Fighters got little to no engagement from the crowd.

The camping, even in the Hive was shocking, We arrived at 9pm with a 5 man tent and there was absolutely no space, I asked three different stewards to help us find a space. Two laughed at us and then walked off without saying anything else. I asked one to radio to someone in the campsite if they could ask if there was a free zone and he just told me he wasn't going to do that just because I wanted to him to. Luckily a young steward went out of his way to ask people with a gazebo to make room for us and we managed to fit in.

The staff overall were overwhelmingly rude and unhelpful in most aspects of the festival too.

The pricing was daylight robbery and Ive been to a lot of pricey gigs and festivals. Can someone explain why the Hive camping kept flashing up that 'toilet facilities are free of charge' like they were doing us a favour to let us use the toilet.

the H20 points had obviously nothing done to fix them, I also don't understand how a festival with that many people attending can't even make stages big enough to let people in to see a band they've paid over the odds to go and see. ITS THE SOLE PURPOSE OF A MUSIC FESTIVAL.

Some of the bands the sound was shocking for, the levels would consistently fluctuate making some performances seem off.

Its now apparent that RW is just a money making excercise. I thought before we went with a line-up with that many large names topping the bill it would be bad but the crowd sucked the life out of a majority of the acts.

hate to be negative about things but this festival cares nothing for its audience only its back pocket.

I have to agree with the Hive camping situation - It looked at one point that they weren't even considering opening up some more space and there was hundreds waiting - Fortunately we got a good pitch not long after. The food was on the more expensive side but you can definitely do that on the cheap if you really wanted to. The fact you couldn't take an empty bottle in this year (when I was able to in 2014) was a pain in the arse to say the least.

[ThijsDB]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience SilverLining. I think you probably also had a bit of bad luck because I saw a lot of acts with a great atmosphere and crowd (especially in The Barn: Bonobo, Lorde,...), thought staff on the festival site was always very kind and friendly, almost always was able to get in the tents and I thought the sound quality was excellent with a few exceptions. I have to agree that the crowd in general wasn't the best and yes, RW is expensive but I've never heard of a West European festival that is a lot cheaper. Personally, I didn't really mind the negative points and I also didn't camp in The Hive so I had a great time

[deadpheasant]

21 hours ago, neacaisa said:

First of all, i don't know who deleted the loners camp threa, i would have made this post on that one as it was more suited there.

i want to thank all the guys involved in the whatsapp group and the camp we made on the hive: ryan and paddy for stepping in at the right time and organizing the whole thing and all the other guys i met and spend a lot of time at the shows and in the camp: will, cath, alex, bogdan, johnny, james and jess, ishan and his buddies, matt, silviu, bogdan, dave, mario, mustafa, josh. I hope i haven't forgotten anybody.

I recommend the whole loners camp experience to anybody that really wants to do a festival but has no other friends willing to commit. If you have the opportunity, do it, you won't regret it.

I will come back tommorrow with a detailed review of the festival itself.

Thanks bro, was a pleasure camping with you.

 

Best acts of the weekend for me were:
1. System of a Down
2. Dropkick Murphys
3. Radiohead
4. Royal Blood
5. Arcade Fire

Honorable mentions: Cage The Elephant, Foo Fighters, Blink 182, Slowdive, Future Islands, POR...

Edited July 5, 2017 by deadpheasant

[Gossard]

I've never had any problems with the staff or the Belgian people in general, they are always perfectly nice and helpful....

[SilverLining]

57 minutes ago, Gossard said:

I've never had any problems with the staff or the Belgian people in general, they are always perfectly nice and helpful....

same with a majority of belgian people just security, stewards were overwhelmingly rude around the area we were camping i was quite astounded at points.

pukkelpop to look forward to anyway in a few weeks, really excited for it now. Just gonna write this one off down to experience.

happy for everyone that had a great fest

[Gossard]

18 minutes ago, lighthouse said:

Well, most of these seem te be about right. Maybe put SOAD half a star higher and AF half a star lower. But that's bickering.

 

I took a few examples like Radiohead, SOAD, Frank Carter, Imagine Dragons and others in an other post to show what I ment......

[deadpheasant]

Arcade Fire were awesome but SOAD & Dropkick Murphys really stole the show.

 

2 stars for Blink is very harsh too thought they had a rocky start but were really decent in the end.

[jonnytee1]

I though Blink were lucky to get 2 stars! 

[JayBeeis]

My Top 5:

1. SOAD
2. Royal Blood
3. Arcade Fire
4. Imagine Dragons
5. Foo Fighters

[Ryanp1993]

Mine goes:

1. SOAD

2.Dropkick murphys

3.Foo fighters

4.Alt-j (regardless of them messing up and the poor crowd)

5.Cage the elephant 

[jmdelblinky]

I'll make it 3 in a row for SOAD

1. SOAD

2. Future Islands

3. Agnes Obel

4. Radiohead

5. Dropkick Murphys

[grumpykrogan]

It was a fantastic festival that was, for me, overshadowed by the god-awful crowd and the mindlessly useless security checks, both at the festival site and the campsite. Just as an example, I was turned away from the fast-lane of the Hive because I had a "backpack" (I had a shoulder bag...) and he didn't have the "technology" to check it. I queue again at the regular line, then NOBODY even touches my fucking bag. What fucking technology was that douchebag tripping about...Other time both I and my bag beeped at the festival site, the "security" caresses my bag softly then lets me go... As for the crowd, they ruined Radiohead and Foo Fighters for me, I get it that I wasn't in the front, but to be the only one in a huge radius singing along to 'Lucky' was depressing. 

I fucking loved: 

Prophets of Rage - my god!!! I was in the front and it was fucking madness. The energy of the crowd was fantastic and the band was really into it! I loved the jump fail in the beginning of 'Jump Around', haha! Looking at the YT video I feel lucky I was in the front cause the back seems dead like at all the other gigs

System of a Down - I was in the back for this but I had three different pogos going on in my vicinity, which was awesome! Again, the energy was fantastic and Serj &co. were mindblowing. 

Arcade Fire - reading this forum I realize how lucky I was to be in the front right behind a group of kids who sang along to ALL the songs! This improved my experience so much that I might have loved them more this time than in NOS Alive last year. They should have been the night headliner, not the boring KoL. + Wake Up is always magical.

In the End - I am not into LP's new stuff at all, so listening to an h of stuff I don't care about was getting a bit dreary. BUT. It was worth for the amazing singalong of In The End and then Numb. 

Beth Ditto -  My husband stayed to watch Imagine Dragons and then regretted not seeing Beth after all my enthusiasm about it. She is a fantastic singer and an entertaining performer, loved her jokes and her little singalongs of other bands' songs. Plus she played some Gossip songs that brought the house down.

I was fucking disappointed:

Radiohead - this is the fault of the crowd. I had other groups of friends scattered around the field and all said the people around them were just standing there and knew no lyrics or showed any enthusiasm. Glad I caught them last year at NOS Alive with a good crowd. 

Foo Fighters -  This pains me to put here, cause the first half of their set was amazing. But then they dragged out every fucking song, the (already not amazing) crowd kinda lost energy, so Best of You and Everlong were very blah. As another poster said, they could have played more songs instead, cause god knows they have the material...

James Blake - I knew this was going to be a miss cause he is not a main stage in the daylight act. But regardless of my low expectations, he didn't play fucking Wilhelm Scream, which he did in Open'er. WTF, James. 

The Kills -  Oh my how I regret not going for Benjamin Clementine. The Kills had zero atmosphere (I was super in the front), Jamie is a show-off scumbag who can't even play guitar. I love Alison and the drummer is very hot, but this was not worth it. Not to mention that they didn't even bother to play No Wow. Somebody should teach these ppl how to make a festival setlist. 

I also saw Warpaint, Cage The Elephant, Royal Blood, Savages, Noname and Sohn, which I enjoyed a lot! 

Next year I'm getting married two weeks before RW, so I won't be able to go, but I'll surely be back in 2 years if the line-up is good.  

[Ryann]

Gotta agree security was inconsistent. I had a few people for around my bag then another guy empty the entire bag and search each individual jacket (that seemed way over the top). 

[e2p2]

I'm very surprised to hear the complaints about the awful crowd atmosphere (I havent been to RW17). I know there's a problem with bands on that huge stage mostly at daytime,  though there are acts that know how to handle that (your reviews on PoR and System of a Down shows that) but the Barn & KluB C usually have an amazing atmosphere almost-regardless to who's performing. Some of the best gigs Ive been to were played at those tents and that very same crowd played a big part of that.  

[ShaneT]

 

 

Firstly, it was a great first RW for me and my girlfriend, we are both used to the high cost of UK festivals so the price of food/drink within the festival itself was no surprise and was on par with what I have experienced before. Bearing that in mind, here are my thoughts:

Positives

• We thought that the organization, Thursday entry into the festival park aside, was fantastic. I attended Leeds Fest last year, total mudbath, vile toilets, and shocking waits for shuttle buses - the exact opposite of RW where we waited no longer than an hour for shuttle buses on the busy Wednesday entry from leuven, and the return on Monday. Any signs of Mud at the hive were dealt with quickly, covered up with wooden walkways etc. The toilets were some of the cleanest I have seen. The queues in the Hive could be long in the morning, so more toilets there would be better - in this regard though I have only seen smaller capacity festivals do better. The mobile network coverage was super also. 

 

• The choice and quality of food was amazing, we had fresh fruit/brownies, spare ribs, Pasta, waffles, Nachos homemade muffins. Even the pizza was much nicer than the cardboard often served up at major events in the UK. And there was an even greater range of options on offer than we experienced across the four days. 

 

• The sound/light system on the main stage was brilliant, the design of the small Klub C and Barn was excellent, although only having two indoor 'tents' as alternatives to the Main Stage was a capacity issue. We loved the slope, and the Northern Walls areas of the park too. 

 

Negatives:

DRINK OPTIONS.  This was a major problem, moreso for my girlfriend who like many women, does not drink beer. The main bars, much to our surprise served nothing alcoholic aside from the one beer, jupiler, on draft. This left joining very long queues for the more limited number of small cocktail bars, or drinking wine (which is tough going all day, for four days). The wine bars rarely had a queue so we did try this, as we didn't want to be paying the 8-9 euro for a cocktail over and over again. I think the festival seriously needs to consider expanding it's alcohol options, with the inclusion of some spirits (vodka etc). I also feel this may have had a negative impact on the crowd, which for many bands, (even though we were often in the front barrier sections of the main stage) were very low in energy.

 

Overall, it was an excellent festival, although very different from many of the UK festivals I have attended, in terms of organization and atmosphere. Although even my negatives point about the alcohol/crowd had it's advantages, certainly less idiots than you get over here. 

[grumpykrogan]

1 hour ago, e2p2 said:

I'm very surprised to hear the complaints about the awful crowd atmosphere (I havent been to RW17). I know there's a problem with bands on that huge stage mostly at daytime,  though there are acts that know how to handle that (your reviews on PoR and System of a Down shows that) but the Barn & KluB C usually have an amazing atmosphere almost-regardless to who's performing. Some of the best gigs Ive been to were played at those tents and that very same crowd played a big part of that.  

I should mention that my complaints are related to the Main Stage crowd. I didn't spend any time in the Barn/Klub C in the evenings because the bands were not so interesting to me, but the gigs I did see there had a good crowd (Beth Ditto and Cage the Elephant come to mind). Two of my favorite gigs ever are The National in 2008 and Damien Rice in 2015 which were in tents at RW, so I know the crowd can be fantastic. 

But when even the band on stage (Foo Fighters in this case) tells the crowd they a quiet bunch of ppl, then you can imagine how lifeless it all was.

[idioteque87]

Thurston Moore Group were the highlight for me. What a fucking band. 

[idioteque87]

1 hour ago, ShaneT said:

 

 

 

Negatives:

DRINK OPTIONS.  This was a major problem, moreso for my girlfriend who like many women, does not drink beer. The main bars, much to our surprise served nothing alcoholic aside from the one beer, jupiler, on draft. This left joining very long queues for the more limited number of small cocktail bars, or drinking wine (which is tough going all day, for four days). The wine bars rarely had a queue so we did try this, as we didn't want to be paying the 8-9 euro for a cocktail over and over again. I think the festival seriously needs to consider expanding it's alcohol options, with the inclusion of some spirits (vodka etc). I also feel this may have had a negative impact on the crowd, which for many bands, (even though we were often in the front barrier sections of the main stage) were very low in energy.

 

 

Agree completely. Was so sick of beer, queued up for 30 minutes for a fucking Barcadi. 

Was a bit of a joke. 

[hfuhruhurr]

This was also our first RW and I was in the Hive (with My Space) with my adult daughter (late draft in, since my son couldn't make it!)

Positives
Transport - from UK (eurostar) to Hive entrance we didn't wait once - superb logistics.
Toilets - extraordinarily clean for a festival. My only slight gripe is why do they think all male festival goers are happy to pee in public, and do they think women find this attractive?!
Line-up - brilliant, for me I'm a Mark Lanegan, Kills, Royal Blood, Imagine Dragons, Jimmy Eat World fan so all good. But SOAD were brilliant.
Walking - usually festivals require stupid amounts of walking (from campsite to festival, between stages) - RW is fab by comparison.
Beer garden - fabulous beer in glasses at a reasonable price for a festival
Food - Decent variety although I found the lack of branding amusing
Queues for food/drink - all pretty good, especially for beer where the queues didn't exist.

Negatives
Security - utterly stupid and a waste of time. People just walking through as others searched. Any searches were pathetic. Just done for show. With Manchester, the issue is crowds outside gigs and all they did was create a nice big target. They need to stop this idiocy.
Drunk people - we did come across quite a few who had completely lost the plot. Don't often see people quite as "gone" at other festivals (I do download, glastonbury and reading) - people having pissed themselves, unable to walk, being very lewd towards women. Even had one trying to pee in a bin in a food queue. Not on.
Barn & Club C - way too small. But also they need to allow the crowds to manage themselves - this strict exit/entrance thing is dumb. Loads of people leaving the Pretenders, yet they let no one in.
My Space - there was a disconnect between tent sizes and pitch size and so many people crushed in. Not worth it if you get in early on Wednesday. Worth it if you want loads of security and a longer walk to the loos.

Overall, we'd go again, but this would be line-up related rather than for the experience.

[LMW91]

1. SOAD

2. Dropkick Murphys 

3. Nothing But Thieves

4. Imagine Dragons

5. Prophets of Rage

[ShaneT]

2 hours ago, grumpykrogan said:

I should mention that my complaints are related to the Main Stage crowd. I didn't spend any time in the Barn/Klub C in the evenings because the bands were not so interesting to me, but the gigs I did see there had a good crowd (Beth Ditto and Cage the Elephant come to mind). Two of my favorite gigs ever are The National in 2008 and Damien Rice in 2015 which were in tents at RW, so I know the crowd can be fantastic. 

But when even the band on stage (Foo Fighters in this case) tells the crowd they a quiet bunch of ppl, then you can imagine how lifeless it all was.

1

Cage the Elephant were great, as was the atmosphere - especially for the first band. It was a shame that the atmosphere then dropped off a cliff-edge again after that. I see someone else in here had the misfortune of being up the front for "the kills". Although they were poor, there were some people in the very front "pen" sat down/sleeping. This lack of respect shocked me as I had heard before attending that this was a very music orientated festival, so I was anticipating more excitement for the bands actually playing. 

It certainly seemed that the best atmosphere of the weekend could be found in the Hive Entertainment Zone which I also thoroughly enjoyed a few of the nights. 

Anyway, overall I had a wonderful weekend - saw some great bands, and wouldn't hesitate to return if the lineup was as appealing again in the future. Thanks to all past attendees who have posted in this thread over previous months as some of your information certainly helped us prepare for our first time  

[Gray Owl]

I just got home (after the most amazing experience ever) and I took my festival bracelets off remembering the great time spent there. We did not encounter any of the issues mentioned by others previously: we found a decent camping spot, staff was more than OK and helpful in case we needed anything. In regards to the lack of camping spots, I saw free spots in the camping during the festival. For example, next to our tent there was space for two more tents. And in regards to the gazebos: why would you take up someone's camping space with that? A gazebo does use 1 full tent space, no? Just sayin'..

Now, about the festival itself: I found it great. It was a well organised festival. I liked the fact that I was not pushed around all the time and that I didn't have to queue for more than 5 minutes for a drink or for food or the bathroom which was always clean (unike others I've experienced).

The odder in which I have mentioned the bands might be subject to change because I am remembering things all the time, but on a general note it goes like this:

1. Radiohead - Amazing. We managed to get spots in the second pit next to the fence and I saw it all. No standing on tiptoes to catch a glimpse. Even though I was majorly disappointed by the fact that the show ended earlier than planned (I did come to the festival mainly for them) I got over it the next day.

Benjamin Clementine - That's how you educate a crowd. I discovered him a short time before he was announced for Werchter but I was not dexpecting him to have such a great performance.

2. SOAD - I was pretty excited about seeing them. We didn't get a very good spot as we did for Radiohead and KOL, but still it was good to hear them and be part of an amazing crowd.

3. Prophets Of Rage - Thee guys are amazing. I was kinda scared about the circles and getting somehow caught in one by accident. My boyfriend actually went in 2-3 times and he really had fun. I quite enjoyed their show and I would definitely go see them again.

4. Foo Fighters - I was not very enthusiastic about seeing them, but they impressed me.

5. KOL - I liked them. I kinda sang Walls alone as the people around me did not really know the song. I think I murdered their ears but I had to do it.

Future Islands - That guy is absolutely amazing and I loved their show. We went out and saw half of it on the grass as I couldn't stand the heat but even so I enjoyed it a lot.

Sohn - No words. He gave me the chills.

Imagine Dragons - Great show, nice energy, amazing crowd, at least where we were located.

6. Royal Blood - I didn't know them so they were quite a nice surprise.

7. Linkin Park - It amazed me that I knew the lyrics of songs that i haven't listened in a loooooong time. Great show.

8. Arcade Fire - I enjoyed the last year show more. I felt them as bored and not in the mood to play. Except for the one who ran and jumped around the stage.

Kodaline - We watched the show on the screen outside as we could not go in. Hearing almost everybody around me singing "High hopes" was unexpected. An unexpected and pleasant surprise.

We went to see some more bands, but I myself was either not too impressed or maybe I was just not in the mood at that point: Cigarettes After Sex, Tout va Bien, Milky Chance, Alt j, Nothing But Thieves, Savages, Rag'n'Bone Man. Ohh.. I almost forgot to mention the fail of the whole festival: James Blake. What was that guy doing on main stage? What was he doing at Werchter? Is it just me or they screwed that one up?