Rock Werchter 2024

[ParanoidTourist]

That was indeed unexpected but same thing happened in 2015 i.e. Lenny was announced out of the blue as a headliner. I´d prefer Pearl Jam but Lenny is actually pretty good live. 

In 2015 he co-headlined with Prodigy so I guess the same thing could happen again. Or with Massive Attack (possibly wishful thinking, I know);) 

Edited November 30, 2023 by ParanoidTourist

[Andrej]

Pearl Jam are 100% touring Europe, and announcement is coming very soon.

I dont know dates and dont know if they are playing Werchter.

[ParanoidTourist]

2 minutes ago, Andrej said:

Pearl Jam are 100% touring Europe, and announcement is coming very soon.

I dont know dates and dont know if they are playing Werchter.

I don´t think they are. As far as I know, they have never co headlined at Werchter. Instead, they have had a strong undercard before them for example War on drugs in 2022 and Jack White in 2018. 

[Archi]

I don't see The Prodigy being still capable of co-headlining a massive festival like Werchter. When you look at their last club tour and festivals in Europe... They would better fit as headliner at Les Ardentes (btw they finally post stuff online again). About Lenny Kravitz: his last show in Belgium was at Palais 12... not even at SportPaleis. A real downgrade after his last 4 shows at SportPaleis in the last decade. It's impossible to have a main headliner at Rock Werchter who don't play at SportPaleis on his arena tour.

The announcements from Werchter are really random this year. I still remember the time - not that far away - when we got announcements on Friday 4pm, except really a few times when it was needed to be another day for headliners. Take the 2 announcements from this week: it would have make way more sense to have Lenny Kravitz online tomorrow followed by the 11 names today. Not the opposite. Wondering how the sales will go from tomorrow. And if they gonna announce more names before Christmas or if we'll have to wait in January. In 2023, they sold 67k combi tickets and there are 21k day-tickets available. Can the actuals headliners help to sell so much tickets at that price? Not so sure. At least, not easely. But more names are coming and we are missing sub/co-headliner on everyday (except maybe for Sunday).

Edited November 30, 2023 by Archi

[just_one]

Just now, ParanoidTourist said:

I don´t think they are. As far as I know, they have never co headlined at Werchter. Instead, they have had a strong undercard before them for example War on drugs in 2022 and Jack White in 2018. 

read my last post in the previous page.  PJ are 100% coming to Europe

[ParanoidTourist]

7 minutes ago, just_one said:

read my last post in the previous page.  PJ are 100% coming to Europe

Yes, I read it. But not to Werchter as I understood it. 

[just_one]

1 minute ago, ParanoidTourist said:

Yes, I read it. But not to Werchter as I understood it. 

Unfortuanlly yes

[Floyd_Ams]

44 minutes ago, just_one said:

There is a greek guy who is well known in the PJ community and has been reliable for years now just said that there is a tour in europe.

about werchter he just said this : 

There was never in the plan for 2024.

Its a short Europe tour with not alot of countries and cities as previous years

Ok just found out too...Yes I know to whom you are referring to and that guy is reliable indeed. 

So it's a short tour and not their usual one. If they are not at Werchter it probably means they are not doing EU festivals at all.

In any case the important message here is that they are out for RW. Which is a huge disappointment for me!

[just_one]

8 minutes ago, Floyd_Ams said:

Ok just found out too...Yes I know to whom you are referring to and that guy is reliable indeed. 

So it's a short tour and not their usual one. If they are not at Werchter it probably means they are not doing EU festivals at all.

In any case the important message here is that they are out for RW. Which is a huge disappointment for me!

for the first time ever , im really hoping they dont come to NOS Alive (im from portugal) because i´ll be in Rome during those days seeing Coldplay so i might hop on from Rome to somewhere in Europe to see PJ from there or backwards 🙂

[Bring Da Ruckus]

Lenny Kravitz is a good booking for me, never had a chance to see him and I think he’ll put on a good show, can’t help but feel it’s a lot smaller than previous years though with Lenny and Maneskin headlining, could they be playing second fiddle to a bigger act, something like this:

Pearl Jam x Lenny Kravitz

Green Day x Maneskin

Dua Lipa x Massive Attack

Foo Fighters x Royal Blood

 

[SweetJesus]

10 minutes ago, Bring Da Ruckus said:

Lenny Kravitz is a good booking for me, never had a chance to see him and I think he’ll put on a good show, can’t help but feel it’s a lot smaller than previous years though with Lenny and Maneskin headlining, could they be playing second fiddle to a bigger act, something like this:

Pearl Jam x Lenny Kravitz

Green Day x Maneskin

Dua Lipa x Massive Attack

Foo Fighters x Royal Blood

 

Have you read previous posts? NO Pearl Jam on Werchter

Edited November 30, 2023 by SweetJesus

[tmolvik]

49 minutes ago, Archi said:

I don't see The Prodigy being still capable of co-headlining a massive festival like Werchter. When you look at their last club tour and festivals in Europe... They would better fit as headliner at Les Ardentes (btw they finally post stuff online again). About Lenny Kravitz: his last show in Belgium was at Palais 12... not even at SportPaleis. A real downgrade after his last 4 shows at SportPaleis in the last decade. It's impossible to have a main headliner at Rock Werchter who don't play at SportPaleis on his arena tour.

The announcements from Werchter are really random this year. I still remember the time - not that far away - when we got announcements on Friday 4pm, except really a few times when it was needed to be another day for headliners. Take the 2 announcements from this week: it would have make way more sense to have Lenny Kravitz online tomorrow followed by the 11 names today. Not the opposite. Wondering how the sales will go from tomorrow. And if they gonna announce more names before Christmas or if we'll have to wait in January. In 2023, they sold 67k combi tickets and there are 21k day-tickets available. Can the actuals headliners help to sell so much tickets at that price? Not so sure. At least, not easely. But more names are coming and we are missing sub/co-headliner on everyday (except maybe for Sunday).

RW is in full decline and although there could be names in the pipeline changing this, the fall was much steeper than I anticipated. I don't have anything against LK, but neither Lenny Kravitz nor Måneskin are headliners. For me not even co-headliners at a major festival like this, although I understand some people might disagree with regards to Måneskin's current popularity. Personally I put Dua Lipa in the same category, but she's a big pop artists, so that's more based on taste.

I'm amazed if these names will generate a huge ticket sale, so it will be interesting to see what RW does going forward. One thing is for sure, such weak "headliners" will not improve the situation at The Barn/Klub C, because the crowd will be even more diverse.

[Bring Da Ruckus]

1 minute ago, SweetJesus said:

Have you read previous posts? NO Pearl Jam on Werchter

I have read them, from what I can gather it sounds like they’re 100% touring but no one is sure if they’re playing Werchter or not, either way, regardless of if it’s Pearl Jam or not i’m assuming there’s a big act alongside Lenny

[just_one]

3 minutes ago, Bring Da Ruckus said:

I have read them, from what I can gather it sounds like they’re 100% touring but no one is sure if they’re playing Werchter or not, either way, regardless of if it’s Pearl Jam or not i’m assuming there’s a big act alongside Lenny

100% sure they arent playing Werchter

[Bring Da Ruckus]

2 minutes ago, just_one said:

100% sure they arent playing Werchter

Works out well for me then, i’m not the biggest Pearl Jam fan, who do we think could pair up with Lenny then as surely he’s not an outright headliner at RW

[49Lawson]

1 hour ago, Archi said:

I don't see The Prodigy being still capable of co-headlining a massive festival like Werchter. When you look at their last club tour and festivals in Europe... They would better fit as headliner at Les Ardentes (btw they finally post stuff online again). About Lenny Kravitz: his last show in Belgium was at Palais 12... not even at SportPaleis. A real downgrade after his last 4 shows at SportPaleis in the last decade. It's impossible to have a main headliner at Rock Werchter who don't play at SportPaleis on his arena tour.

I don’t think anyone is necessarily suggesting The Prodigy (although they would be very welcome for me) but just pointing out that Lenny usually comes with another name.

I still don’t think we need to go all scorched Earth over the semantics of “headliner” and Pearl Jam. Last two times they played since they changed the poster format they’ve shared a top line (once with Jack White and also The War On Drugs). If they’re touring I’d bet money that they’re at Werchter

[Nicklord]

Just add RHCP again on Thursday 

[ParanoidTourist]

1 minute ago, Nicklord said:

Just add RHCP again on Thursday 

Haha, that would really send people into a fury!

I personally hope Lenny is co-headlining with Massive Attack. They play in a french festival on the 7th so they are around during those dates. 

[polnico]

15 minutes ago, Nicklord said:

Just add RHCP again on Thursday 

I am all for it, just so I can grab a popcorn and watch everyone on here and festileaks go batsh*t. 🍿

[tmolvik]

26 minutes ago, 49Lawson said:

I don’t think anyone is necessarily suggesting The Prodigy (although they would be very welcome for me) but just pointing out that Lenny usually comes with another name.

I still don’t think we need to go all scorched Earth over the semantics of “headliner” and Pearl Jam. Last two times they played since they changed the poster format they’ve shared a top line (once with Jack White and also The War On Drugs). If they’re touring I’d bet money that they’re at Werchter

Agreed, but unless they have some really big rabbits in their hats, it seems like a strange marketing strategy to announce all co-headliners first. Also, they must surely understand linguistics, so they should be aware that if they announce something as headliner now and it's not for peoples taste (and definitely not corresponding with their ticket prices), people might opt for other alternatives before they announce the big guns. 

There are so many names touring this year that would neither be too small nor recycled names, that if they had them they would have announced them. Only hope left now is for them to line up a serious amount of good undercards as well as some major and unique headliners that haven't announced their tours yet. For me that must be in the Paul McCartney, RATM category for it to be worth it. 

[49Lawson]

7 minutes ago, tmolvik said:

Agreed, but unless they have some really big rabbits in their hats, it seems like a strange marketing strategy to announce all co-headliners first. Also, they must surely understand linguistics, so they should be aware that if they announce something as headliner now and it's not for peoples taste (and definitely not corresponding with their ticket prices), people might opt for other alternatives before they announce the big guns. 

There are so many names touring this year that would neither be too small nor recycled names, that if they had them they would have announced them. Only hope left now is for them to line up a serious amount of good undercards as well as some major and unique headliners that haven't announced their tours yet. For me that must be in the Paul McCartney, RATM category for it to be worth it. 

Couldn't agree more with everything you've said here mate! You're right about the marketing, I know they're always confident that they'll have a great line up, but when so many other places are turning out near full line ups and you've got a handful of names to go off it's not going to inspire you here. Festivals (and live music in general) costs far too much now to buy a £300 ticket on the hope it might have a great line up.

There are so many names touring this year that would neither be too small nor recycled names - I think you've got it really right here and I know it's a comment myself and a few people have mentioned before. It's harsh looking at LCD, Massive Attack, The National, Smashing Pumpkins etc all going elsewhere whilst we get Royal Blood et al again, and I say that as a Royal Blood fan. But having seen them three times in the last two years at other festivals it's not going to inspire me to make a journey when all of these other bands are elsewhere at cheaper festivals.

[ParanoidTourist]

11 minutes ago, 49Lawson said:

Couldn't agree more with everything you've said here mate! You're right about the marketing, I know they're always confident that they'll have a great line up, but when so many other places are turning out near full line ups and you've got a handful of names to go off it's not going to inspire you here. Festivals (and live music in general) costs far too much now to buy a £300 ticket on the hope it might have a great line up.

There are so many names touring this year that would neither be too small nor recycled names - I think you've got it really right here and I know it's a comment myself and a few people have mentioned before. It's harsh looking at LCD, Massive Attack, The National, Smashing Pumpkins etc all going elsewhere whilst we get Royal Blood et al again, and I say that as a Royal Blood fan. But having seen them three times in the last two years at other festivals it's not going to inspire me to make a journey when all of these other bands are elsewhere at cheaper festivals.

Totally agree! Especially considering the fact that almost all other European festivals have a lower ticket price than Werchter. 

[Archi]

There's a huge hype around Maneskin. They soldout twice Forest National in Brussels on their last tour and it was hard to get ticket on Ticketswap. They'd have sell out SportPaleis (20-24k) easely. I'm not surprised if they are co-headliner. But if they're only headliner with a smaller band below them, that would be disappointing. It remembers me 2022 when we had Imagine Dragons + Twenty One Pilots. It was a sick day and ID played a great show and proved they deserved their spot. 

About bands like The National or The Smashing Pumpkins, they prefer headline a smaller festival like Live Is Live than sub at RW. This festival is promoted by FKP Scorpio, not Live Nation. Obviously RW is massive but there are so many - too many - festivals in Belgium. Every year, there are many bands that could have perfectly fit at Werchter, Graspop or Pukkelpop but bands are booked at smaller festivals on higher spots.

We'll see the final poster of RW, we might have some positive surprises 🙂 

[Floyd_Ams]

I agree with everything you guys @tmolvik, @49Lawson, @ParanoidTourist have said. My exact thoughts too!

But:

1 hour ago, tmolvik said:

Only hope left now is for them to line up a serious amount of good undercards as well as some major and unique headliners that haven't announced their tours yet. For me that must be in the Paul McCartney, RATM category for it to be worth it. 

I am afraid it's about time we accept that there won't be any major headliners added (in the Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam category). If there were such a chance, they would have waited for them like in previous years and the wording in the announcements would have been different. They could have simply announced Maneskin and Lenny separately, if they wanted to, but without calling them headliners. I expect the co-headliners to be of the size of KoL or Parkway Drive at best. And if we are very lucky we'll get someone like, Massive Attack, The Prodigy, Dropkick Murphys (I don't even dare to say QOTSA) and so on...Although I'm afraid that someone like Sam Smith has more chances to come up next and for some reason I have the feeling that the strongest rock name might actually be placed between the Foos and Royal Blood on Sunday. I don't want to sound negative but it is what it is. 

My only hope now is for a super strong undercard with decent alternatives during Dua Lipa, Maneskin, etc. If RW has also missed all the great names that are being announced in other festivals these days (like The Smile, PJ Harvey, etc) I might have to reconsider (for the first time in years) whether I'm going... 

Edited November 30, 2023 by Floyd_Ams

[tmolvik]

2 minutes ago, Floyd_Ams said:

I agree with everything you guys @tmolvik, @49Lawson, @ParanoidTourist have said. My exact thoughts too!

But:

I am afraid it's about time we accept that there won't be any major headliners added (in the Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam category). If there were such a chance, they would have waited for them like in previous years and the wording in the announcements would have been different. They could have simply announced Maneskin and Lenny separately, if they wanted to, but without calling them headliners. I expect the co-headliners to be of the size of KoL or Parkway Drive at best. And if we are very lucky we'll get someone like, Massive Attack, The Prodigy, Dropkick Murphys (I don't even dare to say QOTSA) and so on...Although I'm afraid that someone like Sam Smith has more chances to come up next and for some reason I have the feeling that the strongest rock name might actually be placed between the Foos and Royal Blood on Sunday. I don't want to sound negative but it is what it is. 

My only hope now is for a super strong undercard with decent alternatives during Dua Lipa, Maneskin, etc. If RW has also missed all the great names that are being announced in other festivals these days (like The Smile, PJ Harvey, etc) I might have to reconsider (for the first time in years) whether I'm going... 

I 100% agree and was more trying to show a slight sign of optimism 😉 That said, there has been instances where headliners have been announced after new year, but then it's more related to logistics so I don't think that's the case here. It's not like they have a bunch of huge bands on "stand-by" as some seem to believe, but there might be the slim chance of someone being willing to alter their tour plans if ticket sales are crap. Unfortunately the chance of them putting even more money into their line-up if tickets are selling slow is probably unlikely and we'd probably rather see them cut their losses with undercards being even cheaper. Luckily cheap doesn't necessarily mean bad, but it's far away from what it seems like some people still are expecting in here. 

There are probably some good names still to come, but I can't really see how that are able to turn this from very weak (probably the weakest in my 12 year history of going), into something that will make it possible for me to add extra people to our group.