Rock Werchter 2017

[JoeHazz]

Is anyone staying in Brussels? I thought i'd probably leave the festival this evening at around 1am but trains don't start running till about 5am... Trying to find any kind of convenient way to get back so if anyone has any advife it would be much appreciated!

[AAlex]

Well, I have to say despite the camping issues this has the potential to be the best festival I've ever been to. The Hive is well worth the extra money.

Have a great weekend guys, I sure am! 

PS- prophets of rage were incredible weren't they?! 

[nickybu]

Currently in the Hive. Anyone got weed to sell? Can't find shit anywhere haha

[Red Day]

13 hours ago, alexlloyd said:

Well, I have to say despite the camping issues this has the potential to be the best festival I've ever been to. The Hive is well worth the extra money.

Have a great weekend guys, I sure am! 

PS- prophets of rage were incredible weren't they?! 

POR were brilliant yeaterday

[ThijsDB]

The weather was perfect yesterday (we even got sunshine wow) and I saw some great concerts, especially Lorde! Crowd was a little bit meh during Arcade Fire but still enjoyed it. Up to the next day! 

[neacaisa]

Yeah, the crowd is not spectacular at all, good reaction only when por was playing, mediocre atmosphere afterwards, i hope it will get better. Maybe the forecast will be wrong and we will have just a few raindrops the whole weekend.

[Red Day]

Totally loved Radiohead tonight

[Semprini]

Glad to hear everyone's having a good time!

Frank Carter absolutely kicking ass on the live stream!! Been quite impressed with the coverage so far. They're showing more bands than are listed - quite a few are being added just before their set time. Future Islands, Mura Masa and Charlotte De Witte were all really good. Been flicking between this and Roskilde as that's being shown on Red Bull TV.

[Semprini]

Not sure how much they're showing but there's currently a replay of Radiohead on the live stream.

[Red Day]

12 hours ago, Semprini said:

Glad to hear everyone's having a good time!

Frank Carter absolutely kicking ass on the live stream!! Been quite impressed with the coverage so far. They're showing more bands than are listed - quite a few are being added just before their set time. Future Islands, Mura Masa and Charlotte De Witte were all really good. Been flicking between this and Roskilde as that's being shown on Red Bull TV.

Frank Carter was insanely good. Even ended up in a circle despite being way too old for that kinda stuff.  Loved it 

[lukatej]

Hi., there was some group of four very drunk people pissing in cups and throwing it at people at front sector of AltJ. 

I punched one of them and called security, unfortunately I had to leave.

Does anybody know how it ended? Did they get thrown out?

[BlockRockinBeats]

1 hour ago, lukatej said:

Hi., there was some group of four very drunk people pissing in cups and throwing it at people at front sector of AltJ. 

I punched one of them and called security, unfortunately I had to leave.

Does anybody know how it ended? Did they get thrown out?

Weirdly I saw a group of teens who were drinking each other's p*ss in Foos tonight. As well as walking around with their d*cks out etc. 

Eveyoje was pretty damning and gave them a hard time. No bother during show to be fair. 

Also, stayed right until end. Was back in my Air BnB in Leuven for 2am. Pretty awesome going. 

[ThijsDB]

I had an amazing 4 days with Radiohead, Lorde, Bonobo and Royal Blood as highlights!

For those that are interested, you can watch the whole Radiohead concert here:

http://vod.rockwerchter.be/?language=en&mediaId=35252

(also a lot of other concert fragments, atmosphere videos and interviews underneath the video)

[Red Day]

Fave headliners Radiohead and Foos, although SOAD are more headliner than LP.

Royal Blood were brilliant and have grown so much in confidence on how to work a big stage.

Cage the Elephant and Frank Carter brilliant starts to Sat and Sunday

Prophets of Rage - Stunning

Pretenders - I was surprised they still have it 

Overall a great weekend.

[gunther Mickey]

That was amazing. Great weather (more dry and more sun than expected), great bands, great emotion, good organization and a lot of fun (and beers of course).

Best acts for me : SOAD, Royal Blood (terrific), Benjamin Clementine (emotion and passion with superb crowd), POR, Oscar and the Wolf (beautiful atmosphere), Cage the Elephant and Arcade Fire.

Great musical discoveries for me : Tash Sultana (this girl is incredible), J Bernardt (great showman), Dropkick Murphys, Charli XCX (clearly not my kind of music but good energy) and Seasick Steve (this guy is hilarious).

Edited July 3, 2017 by gunther Mickey

[Nicklord]

Too lazy to write full review but top 3 sets are SOAD, Prophets of Rage and Radiohead. 

Prophets of Rage were something else, I thought they'd be fun but it really clicked with the crowd. I watched them on like 10 different live streams and this was by far the best. 

Other nice things, weather wasn't as bad as advertised. Actually it was pretty good for the most part. Sound on stages is great, people are friendly. Camping is great, much better than Rock im Park and Novarock but not as good as Sziget and Exit

One thing I didn't like was the energy of the crowd. More often than not I wanted to do something like: 

 

Will probably come back next year if headliners are good like this year 

[stiltzkin]

14 hours ago, Nicklord said:

One thing I didn't like was the energy of the crowd. More often than not I wanted to do something like: 

 

Will probably come back next year if headliners are good like this year 

Ha, yeah, exactly this - it was my only real negative for the festival, tbh. I couldn't believe how many people made the effort to get themselves into the front row section and then do nothing at all for the whole set (even after taking into account those who were just waiting for the next band) - no singing along, no dancing, no moshing, no cheering. Weird. It meant that a few of the sets i was in that section for were less enjoyable as a result, because everybody around me made me feel like the weirdo for having energy!

 

 

[Ryann]

14 minutes ago, stiltzkin said:

Ha, yeah, exactly this - it was my only real negative for the festival, tbh. I couldn't believe how many people made the effort to get themselves into the front row section and then do nothing at all for the whole set (even after taking into account those who were just waiting for the next band) - no singing along, no dancing, no moshing, no cheering. Weird. It meant that a few of the sets i was in that section for were less enjoyable as a result, because everybody around me made me feel like the weirdo for having energy!

 

 

It could have been them getting in place for the next act or something. If you're going up front though you've got to give it some energy though.

 

On a different note the crowd was seriously hyped for SOAD. I saw roughly 6 pits walking from the second barrier to the ticket exchange to get a bit of fresh air.

[stiltzkin]

15 minutes ago, Ryann said:

It could have been them getting in place for the next act or something. If you're going up front though you've got to give it some energy though.

'Fraid not - I know there's always a percentage of people doing that, but we're talking huge chunks of crowd here - and it even happened during headline acts (so there was no next band). It was pretty odd.

Edited July 4, 2017 by stiltzkin

[Gossard]

Topp 5:
1. System of a Down!!!!
2. Prophets of Rage
3. Foo Fighters
4. Linkin Park
5. Imagine Dragons

Radiohead and Alt-J join The XX as the worst bands I've seen in my 9 times at RW! Radiohead had a time slot until 01:00 but only played until 00:30....but that last 30min were my favorite  

[AAlex]

Got back late last night, great festival, I'd say the best I've been to and assuming the line up is as good as it's been the last few years I'll be returning in 2018.

Top 5 - Prophets of Rage, Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, System of a Down, Seastick Steve

Biggest Surprise - SOAD, it's a bit heavier than what I normally listen to but I really enjoyed it, Rag n Bone Man was also very good in The Barn, which is such a nice stage.

Biggest Disappointment - Radiohead/Kings of Leon, wasn't expecting anything from Radiohead anyway as I don't like them but no crowd interaction, no Creep/High and Dry and going off half an hour early was worse than I expected. Kings of Leon are on this because they're probably one of the bands I was most excited to see, but I had to look back through the line up today to remember I'd even seen them.

 

Does anyone know where's a good place to buy merch from after the festival? I was hoping to buy a t-shirt with the line up on the back there but was told on the Friday none of them had the line up, I've had a bit of a look but can't see any official outlets online.

[thetechi]

6 minutes ago, alexlloyd said:

Does anyone know where's a good place to buy merch from after the festival? I was hoping to buy a t-shirt with the line up on the back there but was told on the Friday none of them had the line up, I've had a bit of a look but can't see any official outlets online.

Sadly not - Werchter said they don't sell merch with bands on the back because of 'Copyright reasons' - bizarre considering every other festival does it! 

[thetechi]

We had an absolute blast of a weekend - cheers to anyone I met over the weekend who I didn't realise was on here.

I've been to very many festivals and this one really is special.
I agree with the comments already made and for me, the very beginning and end were a complete shambles but everything in between was wonderful.

Negatives first: 

The Hive Camping on the Wednesday made everyone stressed and there seemed to be a total lack of organisation, other than a couple of security members telling everyone off. Likewise for The Hive parking, despite arriving early, we were told to park right at the back, further back than many who arrived after us resulting in us waiting in the car park for well over 2 1/2 hours yesterday and missing our ferry even though we'd factored in plenty of time. We could have been out so much quicker if it hadn't been for lack of car park stewards resulting in people driving around the fields/ cutting in the queues wherever they could. 

I also have to agree with the disappointingly unenthusiastic crowds comment - but only for some of the bands. The crowds for SOAD and a couple of others were amazing but for bands like Foos there was no energy at all - spoiling the set somewhat for me. 

- Kings of Leon.
 

Positives:

- The almost perfect festival weather, despite the weather warnings pre-festival
- Lovely, lovely crowd. Despite being unenthusiastic for some, everyone seemed so friendly!!
- Some outstanding sets - SOAD, Passenger, Imagine Dragons, Nathaniel Rateliff and Foo Fighters being my top 5
- A great lineup in general
- One of the most efficient bars I have ever seen at a festival. Never had to queue even in busy times
- Some of the nicest toilets I've seen at a festival 

 

Overall, I was VERY impressed with pretty much everything and do hope I can attend in 2018!

[AAlex]

11 minutes ago, thetechi said:

Sadly not - Werchter said they don't sell merch with bands on the back because of 'Copyright reasons' - bizarre considering every other festival does it! 

Oh, that's a shame! I saw people walking round with 2016's line up on so was hoping to grab one somewhere, but if it's to do with copyright guessing they weren't bought in the festival last year anyway.

[jonnytee1]

1 hour ago, Gossard said:

Topp 5:
1. System of a Down!!!!
2. Prophets of Rage
3. Foo Fighters
4. Linkin Park
5. Imagine Dragons

Radiohead and Alt-J join The XX as the worst bands I've seen in my 9 times at RW! Radiohead had a time slot until 01:00 but only played until 00:30....but that last 30min were my favorite  

Not that i like to pick things apart but 

1) System are System  - it was a great set but in my opinion there were classic tacks that could have been played rather than hear one too many of Darons slower tracks - where were science? Forest? Revenga but to name a few.

2) Cant really pick at this one  - amazing set

3) Foos were great but to me they just dragged out so many songs for 10 minutes and could have played a lot more

4) Don't get me started on Linkin Park - what has happened to them? Awful would be too kind a word 

5) Cant pick at this one either.

I do not understand your view of Radiohead. I think that both in terms of albums and as a live band they are heads and shoulders above other bands. If you had said Blink 182, then i would have agreed. They were terrible. 

All in all though some amazingly good performances over the weekend  - my top one goes to Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes!