Rock Werchter 2023

[ParanoidTourist]

1 hour ago, Floyd_Ams said:

I hope that someone from the organisation was there taking notes of what happened on Thursday during Iggy. We were in front of the Barn ~45’ in advance and didn’t manage to get in (it would ‘ve been our highlight of the day - it still hurts 😭). A huge crowd was waiting for a very long time outside in the rain hoping that the doors will reopen to get in. We gave up after approx 1h realising that they don’t intend to reopen (tbf this was wise as due to the size of the crowd they wouldn’t be able to control ppl and close the doors again). The big screen area was packed with ppl watching Iggy outside in the rain! Out of curiosity we went towards the main stage and I have never seen it emptier. It felt like the tents side of the festival was busier than the main.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that RW gives stage to all kinds of music. But (as expected) someone like Stormzy is simply not co-headlining material for this place. He just isn’t. There are a gazillion other festivals where this would have worked but not here. Iggy would have filled up two Barns that night I think.

Other than that great festival so far despite the non-ideal weather.

 

PS: Imo the Barn has become too big for the surrounding area. If they want to keep it like this they should consider expanding the grounds if possible. It used be a nice and relaxed area now it’s constantly super busy. 

PS2: The new slope is super!

PS3: I may be the only one here but I think RHCP were great both this and last year. It didn’t bother me one bit seeing them two years in a row (especially considering the options).

I agree! I have never seen the Barn filled up so much as with the Iggy gig. The area around the Barn/Klub C really is too crowded when the acts are big. 

Also agree on RHCP. They were on fire yesterday! 

[Nicklord]

I wonder how it looked for Fred again. I didn't even want to try. We went and watched Touche Amore and Oscar and the wolf, thought both were great to be honest.

 

[VCF]

Dont like Muse but playing Showbiz instead of just leaving after the technical issues was a proper move.

[tmolvik]

12 hours ago, Nicklord said:

I wonder how it looked for Fred again. I didn't even want to try. We went and watched Touche Amore and Oscar and the wolf, thought both were great to be honest.

 

Almost double the size as Editors... Good mood, but packed.

[charlierc]

11 hours ago, VCF said:

Dont like Muse but playing Showbiz instead of just leaving after the technical issues was a proper move.

First time they've played it on this tour, and it had only made about 6/7 appearances since 2006. Can't pretend I'm a little jealous they got it, if also impressed they remembered it enough to do it.

Edited July 2, 2023 by charlierc

[gingerevans84]

14 hours ago, Nicklord said:

I wonder how it looked for Fred again. I didn't even want to try. We went and watched Touche Amore and Oscar and the wolf, thought both were great to be honest.

 

It was incredible, and ultra packed on the floor and the sides

[Nicklord]

53 minutes ago, charlierc said:

First time they've played it on this tour, and it had only made about 6/7 appearances since 2006. Can't pretend I'm a little jealous they got it, if also impressed they remembered it enough to do it.

I thought it was an incredible way to finish. Loved that they played both Showbiz and Map. 2 out of my 3 favorite Muse songs 

[Floyd_Ams]

22 hours ago, matrainertje said:

If you were thinking Iggy was bad… Editors was much, much worse. The WHOLE Barn area was filled whereas you could easily walk to the first rail during Liam’s set at the main… 

As soon as we saw the queues for Editors we simply turned around and went back to Liam. At least we managed to get an amazing spot for RHCP at the very front just behind the pit.

Proper move by Muse last night indeed. Amazing choice for a spontaneous ending! 
 

I don’t know who had the genius idea to put the big screen in the middle between the Barn and KlubC but I hope next year they move it back to where it was the previous years. Big space going to waste on the side while 25k ppl exiting the barn trying to pass and not step on the ones lying down in the middle. 

[Ohad]

Amazing year! 

I had the absolute delight to find out that after qotsa they did not let anyone in to the Golden ring. It was crazy, it was about 2/3 empty. We had pleeeenty of space to dance and go crazy.

But  I felt bad for the other guys who were both allowed in for any apperant reason 

[Nicklord]

38 minutes ago, Ohad said:

Amazing year! 

I had the absolute delight to find out that after qotsa they did not let anyone in to the Golden ring. It was crazy, it was about 2/3 empty. We had pleeeenty of space to dance and go crazy.

But  I felt bad for the other guys who were both allowed in for any apperant reason 

They let a ton of people in on the left side. I know cause we did it 😄

[Ohad]

Just now, Nicklord said:

They let a ton of people in on the left side. I know cause we did it 😄

Well, an unsolved mystery. No complaints here, had one of the best concert experiences of my life because of that

[gingerevans84]

57 minutes ago, Ohad said:

Amazing year! 

I had the absolute delight to find out that after qotsa they did not let anyone in to the Golden ring. It was crazy, it was about 2/3 empty. We had pleeeenty of space to dance and go crazy.

But  I felt bad for the other guys who were both allowed in for any apperant reason 

We left after Queens, went to toilet and get beer..and still got back in on the right hand side. The kept the red crosses on though so it wasnt so crushy I guess.

[heti]

Was expexting this but still, hope dies last...Werchter 2024 is scheduled 04-07.07. Same weekend I'm seeing Metallica during no-repeat weekend tour. 

 

DAMN !!

[Ohad]

8 hours ago, gingerevans84 said:

We left after Queens, went to toilet and get beer..and still got back in on the right hand side. The kept the red crosses on though so it wasnt so crushy I guess.

I stood for the whole show near the entrance to the Golden ring (not silver ring, which i believe youre referring). It was shut. The gate wasnt open after queens. 🙂

[Nicklord]

I thought the festival was great. The only issue is some acts being just way too big for Barn, I still don't get why they close the stage and then don't open when 30% of the people leave after 15 minutes but oh well. Personally we only missed Charlotte de Witte due to that but I can imagine it was a bigger problem for those that wanted to see Fred Again, Editors or Rosalia.

It was also our first time in The Hive My Space, that actually increased our enjoyment of the festival by like 30%. It's soooo much more chill than The Hive (not like that one is super crazy but still) and we loved it.

Things we saw:

Thursday: Holly Humberstone, Anna Calvi, King Princess, The 1975, Sam Fender, The Reytons, Iggy Pop, Mumford & Sons

MVP: Iggy Pop definitely, that was just amazing. 

Friday: Spoon, Viagra Boys, Black Box Revelation, Squid, Kasabian, The Black Keys, Fever Ray, Liam Gallagher, RHCP

MVP: RHCP, my favorite band so that was an easy choice 😄 But really, I thought the show was better than last year and John seems like he's in a much better form after a year of touring. There were some amazing moments. Loved Parallel Universe and Tiny Dancer

Saturday: Danielle Ponder, City and Colour, Interpol, Paolo Nutini, Sigur Ros, Dope Lemon, Touche Amore, Oscar & The Wolf, Muse

MVP: Danielle Ponder, while I was researching the lineup I thought it would be a great way to start a day with something chill. I didn't like the songs but her voice sounded good but by the end of the show the 3 of us all cried like little babies, that was so emotional for both the crowd and for her as well. It was pretty funny when she saw that people turned on the flash and waved the phones on their own and she said "ohh shiiit" lol - it seemed like it didn't even occurred to her those things can happen.

Sunday: Pip Millett, Amenra, Gabriels, Puscifer, JID, QOTSA, AM

MVP: QOTSA, they're just in a great form. Josh was obviously struggling with some back or stomach pain so he took some more pauses between songs than usual but that somehow just added more to the atmosphere. The return of the Spiderman was a great moment. I don't like Make it With Chu on record but on Sunday it sounded immense. The live debut of Straight Jacket Fitting was a great moment as well.

[johnny_rocket]

Overall I had another wonderful experience at Werchter but obviously theres still a lot room for improvement.

Food/drink prices: no increases for drinks was a happy surprise and given the current inflation, price increases for most food seemed reasonable (on avg +5% for expensive food, +10-12% for the lower priced stuff) with the one exception of fries/sauce. +25% for fries alone is already ridiculous but additional .4 tokens for sauce is just usury.

 

The Barn/KlubC: 😄😄(cant get rid of these emojis lol)

i loved the tribunes in the barn and had such a great view for Sigur Ros and Christine and the Queens. I also love to have a club-like atmosphere on a festival as well as the bouncy floors but as many have already pointed out logistics are bad (like with the space in front of the stages). In the Barn they should guide people to side entrances as in the front the often is a lot of space left while in the back it often gets really crowded. Learned my lesson for the next time. 

The new DJ areas dont give me anything so my personal solution would be to get rid of both, make the barn open air, klub c moves to the old slope location and the slope moves to the north west walls/jupiler dj area. Dont know how the DJ areas were received by others though...

 

Sound: during quiter sets on the main stage you could hear Klub C AND the hive party tent. During Arctic Monkeys this was especially annoying and should just not happen during a headliner. Also in the back of the silver ring and right in front of it, you could often hear the stage sound from the speaker in the production tent (or whatever it is called) which was irritating.

 

The hive: hive party on wednesday sucked compared to last year. Almost every DJ played the same three songs in their sets and I wish to never have to hear this f-ing Harry Stiles Song again... was also my first time camping on MySpace and while I'd book it again, spacing was ridiculous. Just make it 9m² so you can definitely put up a gazebo. Apparently they also overbooked and put people next to the fences where the grass wasnt even properly cut. Also some rows were really close to some cowshed and basically payed extra to constantly "enjoy" a bad smell... Shower access, toilet situation and the new cooking area were mostly great though.

 

Concert Highlights: basically all of them! (Liam Gallagher and Arctic Monkeys were a bit underwhelming, but still not bad though!)

[mttJ]

Excellent format on the post above so I’ll follow something similar. My first time at RW and any overseas festival as well, no significant complaints about anything. The Barn is a bit of a surprising concept but being in a pitch black space for Fred Again was something special. A1 camping was great and a nice shout-out to The Hive who were happy to escort us through to their camping store to buy a chair even though we weren’t part of their campsite. Drink sizes were a bit annoying, but was nice to discover the one stool which did 0.5l beers on the Saturday.

Thursday: Compact Disk Dummies > Holly Humberstone > The 1975 > Sam Fender > Stormzy > Mumford & Sons

Friday: Hot Milk > Kasabian > Ben Howard > Liam Gallagher > RHCP

Saturday: Paolo Nutini > MGK > Fred Again > Muse

Sunday: Nova Twins > Dermot Kennedy > The Lumineers > QOTSA > AM

My top 5 would be Fred Again, Stormzy, Ben Howard, Sam Fender & AM. The latter felt somewhat of a positive surprise after spending weeks hearing how bad they’ve been live recently. Fred Again will be something I remember as a top 3 set I’ve ever seen for a good while.

[gingerevans84]

Top weekend was had, arrived Thursday morning to C3 campsite after spending a night in Brussels in the Delirium village. What a fine place that is!

Thursday we saw 1975, Sam Fender, Reytons and then Mumfords

Friday - Spoon, Bears Den, Kasabian, Black Keys and then Chili Peppers. Couldnt get into the barn for Editors, really annoying as thousands left during the show.

Saturday - Interpol, Paolo Nutini, Xavier Rudd ( got in extra early for Fred Again after the previous nights issues..), Fred and then Muse..lost my mind when Showbiz started!

Sunday - Inhaler, Dermot Kennedy, Puscifer, Queens of the Stone Age and then Arctic Monkeys.

All in all, great stuff. Looked like the acts were enjoying themselves. Close run thing between Fred and Queens for my most enjoyable act. Crowd were most decent except some extremely drunk French ladies during Puscifer who tried to pickpocket me and then kick my ankles for 'fun'. They soon left though. Did anyone else see that seafood bar by the Slope and the vat of mussels they served for 6 coins?! Incredible value given how expensive other food was.

Look forward to the rumours for next year already.

[ParanoidTourist]

Just got back from Belgium. It was a great festival as usual!

I managed to see: 
Thursday: Gayle, King Princess, Sam Fender, Iggy Pop, Mumford and Sons

Friday: Hot Milk, Kasabian, The Black Keys, Liam Gallagher, Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Saturday: Interpol, Sigur Ros, Dean Lewis, Muse

Sunday: Lumineers, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys

My top 5 was: Iggy Pop, RHCP, Sigur Ros, Sam Fender and TQOFSA

 

Queens of the stone age totally floored me. What a fantastic gig! 

[Floyd_Ams]

I struggle to believe that RW '23 is already in the past, it's incredible how time flies when we are there. It surely wasn't the best edition (although there are no bad editions really) and the weather wasn't ideal but we still had an amazing time.

My highlights:

The Reytons: It's rare that you go see a (relatively) young band for the first time with high expectations and they manage to exceed them. A non stop mosh pit with people of all ages (there was a family next to us from grandad to granddaughter and they all managed to crowd surf by the end of it I think 😂). 

Black Box Revelation: The Belgians have grew and a spot at the main stage was well deserved. Excellent performance!

The HU: The Mongolian Metallica, as we now call them we my friends, was great fun.

RHCP: I think we can put the "they are not a good live band" stereotype to rest. I loved it even more than last year (which I considered a great one). The return of Frusciante really brought fresh air to all of them.

Sigur Ros: Magical as always. 1h is really not enough for them. If you saw their own show recently you've noticed the difference.

Muse: I skipped them last time for Underworld and it had been a while. Great show, amazing spontaneous ending with showbiz. That "Compliance" song was...ehmm...unnecessary.

Amenra: Third time this year, always memorable. The atmosphere they create is simply unique!  

Puscifer: I was hoping for a couple more songs from the older albums but can't complain, nice show overall.

QOTSA: What a gig! That energy in the crowd! Not the first time I see them in RW but definitely their best performance yet. Perfection in every aspect. My headliners for Sunday and probably my highlight of the festival

Acts I enjoyed a lot: Anna Calvi, Body type, Royksopp, Viagra Boys, Squid (for just a bit due to Kasabian), Kasabian, Dead Poet Society (what's with the 35'? we want more), STONE, Nova Twins.

Acts that were ok but I won't remember their performance for long: Froukje, The 1975, Liam, Oscar and the Wolf, Arctic Monkeys.

My biggest disappointment was not being able to enter the Barn for Iggy who was one of our must sees from the entire lineup. Same for Editors (we gave up when we saw the queues) in retrospect as I've heard they were really good. I am also sad I missed mostly due to circumstances: PUP, Gabriels, Danielle Ponder, Interpol, Spoon.

The festival organisers really need to look into the layout of the Barn/KlubC area and the crowd flows. Also do a better programming in regard to the lineup with a better spread of the bands, especially the big names. These aspects the last two years weren't as carefully thought as before it seems and that puts at risk the strongest cards of this festival that make it stand out from the rest. Just my 2 cents...

Can't wait for RW 2024!