Rock Werchter 2023

[ParanoidTourist]

12 minutes ago, The Black said:

Stromae officially cancelled his entire tour... New headliner needed.

 

 

Damn! Will be even more difficult to sell out Thursday now. Unless they find a proper headliner at last minute.

[DDave]

Bet it'll be Pink 

[Name taken]

Fred again..  x  Skrillex  x  Four tet

[Kaboom Boxer]

Surely impossible to get a genuine headliner level act 50 days out. Presumably everyone gets bumped up the bill and a lower level act is added. 

[Name taken]

Or Charlotte Dewitte moves on in worst case scenario 

bwueh

[Kaboom Boxer]

What sort of money do we think Stromae was pulling? I’d guess it’s the lowest fee of the four headliners so probably doesn’t leave a big enough pot to throw a “too good to turn down” offer at a genuine headliner sized act. 

[mttJ]

Feels like it’d be so easy to have The 1975 as a headliner to me but I guess it’s not the same over in Belgium.

Another act in would certainly be an added bonus!

[DDave]

37 minutes ago, DDave said:

Bet it'll be Pink 

Forgot she is playing RW Boutique. 

My bet is Calvin Harris with a USB stick and private jet. 

[birchtree29]

The 1975,Sam Fender, Stormzy can count as a headliner but I think they will book someone last minute if it’s possible to boost ticket sales

[VCF]

I’m sorry but building your hardest day to sell around Stromae, Stormzy and Sam Fender (all known for cancellations in the past few years) was incredibly dumb. It was meant to happen at some point.

And if they don’t have a plan B or C that’s even more surprising from a festival such as RW.

Edited May 9, 2023 by VCF

[Kaboom Boxer]

4 minutes ago, VCF said:

I’m sorry but building your hardest day to sell around Stromae, Stormzy and Sam Fender (all known for cancellations in the past few years) was incredibly dumb. It was meant to happen at some point.

And if they don’t have a plan B or C that’s even more surprising from a festival such as RW.

Point taken on the first part, I agree that was a risk. On the Plan B or Plan C bit I have a bit more sympathy, it's not like you have headline sized acts just waiting in the wings in case of cancellation.

[ParanoidTourist]

I guess I can get my irrational Blur hope going again😉 Or Placebo could show up. 

[VCF]

6 minutes ago, Kaboom Boxer said:

Point taken on the first part, I agree that was a risk. On the Plan B or Plan C bit I have a bit more sympathy, it's not like you have headline sized acts just waiting in the wings in case of cancellation.

Fair point.

But they’re clearly stating it on their announcement, as if they were totally lost by the situation. A bit unusual from them…

Blur after all the speculations would be hilarious but they’re playing another Belgian festival (Lokerse) and struggling to sell it. Not the boost Werchter will be hoping for.

Edited May 9, 2023 by VCF

[Cw91]

Blur are in Amsterdam 27th of June....but I agree can't see a big act coming in this late....sam fender or 1975 as headliner I reckon 

[tmolvik]

2 minutes ago, VCF said:

Fair point.

But they’re clearly stating it on their announcement, as if they were totally lost by the situation. A bit unusual from them…

Blur after all the speculations would be hilarious but they’re playing another Belgian festival (Lokerse) and struggling to sell it. 

With things starting to develop early in April (first Stromae cancellations), many missed opportunities and a day that's by many already looked upon as weak, I don't think there is an excuse for not having a plan B or C in place in terms of anticipating that this could happen. I understand that there is no major band in the shadows playing the role as a backup, but this surely can't come as a huge surprise. It's also strange to give a statement 2 months before the festival that there's not any plan B or C in place, if not for other reasons than to lower expectations and to get away with not having to replace them. Live Nation would be able to fix this, at least to a certain degree, if they wanted to. Thats's one of the few advantages of having such a company arranging the festival, so I'm hoping for the "yet" in their statement to be a confirmation that they will. 

For me, bumping a bunch of bands now is not acceptable, but highly probable. If they don't do it internally that day, I'm expecting Editors to move days. Do hope for a rabbit out of the hat in terms of Blur, Placebo or something though....

[49Lawson]

39 minutes ago, VCF said:

And if they don’t have a plan B or C that’s even more surprising from a festival such as RW.

It’s been mentioned but festivals sadly don’t have reserve headliners ready to go. I find the wording of it odd though, a few years ago when this happened with the Foos they published an excellent article about the process that they had to follow in order to bring Faith No More in. It’s probably still on Werchter’s website somewhere 

[ParanoidTourist]

32 minutes ago, VCF said:

Fair point.

But they’re clearly stating it on their announcement, as if they were totally lost by the situation. A bit unusual from them…

Blur after all the speculations would be hilarious but they’re playing another Belgian festival (Lokerse) and struggling to sell it. Not the boost Werchter will be hoping for.

But Blur will still potentially be good for the ticket sales up until a certain point. Just bumping up the 1975 and Sam Fender would likely not sell more tickets at all. 

Anyway, we can be happy if they manage to produce a new headliner at all this close to the festival. But they succeeded once with Faith No More. 

[Nicklord]

Turnstile

[Dietediet]

My bet would be Sam Smith or Lizzo. Both don't have a Belgian festival date. And considering a majority of the Thursday ticket holders are probably pop minded, it makes more sense than bringing in a guitar act.

[johnybegood]

5 minutes ago, Nicklord said:

Turnstile

Playing PKP...

[ParanoidTourist]

Apart from Blur and Placebo, also Depeche Mode, Måneskin, Kings of Leon, Robbie Williams, Foals and Pulp seem to be free on the 29th of June. 

[Dietediet]

27 minutes ago, ParanoidTourist said:

Apart from Blur and Placebo, also Depeche Mode, Måneskin, Kings of Leon, Robbie Williams, Foals and Pulp seem to be free on the 29th of June. 

You can already rule out Blur, Placebo, Depeche Mode, Foals and Pulp though.

[ParanoidTourist]

24 minutes ago, Dietediet said:

You can already rule out Blur, Placebo, Depeche Mode, Foals and Pulp though.

That's a shame. They would have been a better pick than Stromae imo.

[DDave]

1 hour ago, Dietediet said:

My bet would be Sam Smith or Lizzo. Both don't have a Belgian festival date. And considering a majority of the Thursday ticket holders are probably pop minded, it makes more sense than bringing in a guitar act.

Lizzo is a decent shout. 

[sokkovokna]

31 minutes ago, ParanoidTourist said:

That's a shame. They would have been a better pick than Stromae imo.

Pulp is really not that big in Belgium. Blur (together with Hot Chip) is not able to sell out a very small venue like Lokerse Feesten, which is a small festival by the same organization as Rock Werchter. Live Nation purposefully placed Blur there and not on Rock Werchter. Probably exlusivity rights too.

Edited May 9, 2023 by sokkovokna