Rock Werchter - A festival of cups, sweat and beers

Belgium July 2, 3, 4 and 5th, 2009

The event of the year had finally arrived; the event that I had to quit my job to attend. 4 days of good music, good friends and good beer was just around the corner.

After finishing the final day of work, and enjoying a celebratory drink, Dan and I grabbed an early nights sleep to prepare for the next few days. We woke and after a last minute shopping expedition, we packed our bags and headed for London. After arriving at Fenchurch Street, we needed to catch a tube around to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Brussels at 5.30. One stop away from St Pancras and the tube train just stopped and we all had to get off. Apparently the recent heat wave (Lucky to have been topping 30) was playing havoc with the train lines. After 15 mintues of trying to decide whether to walk to St Pancras or wait for the next train, and train appeared and we all piled in (very hot, and incredibly crammed). Once we arrived at Kings Cross/St Pancras we just happened to bump into our other festival goers, Matt and Jodie. A quick check in for us (not so for Matt who had to unpack and then repack his backpack due to security spotting his pocket knife on the xray machine) and we were finally on the Eurostar. We had a great set up on the train, 4 seats around a table, directly opposite a group of 3 Australian girls, also bound for Werchter. Before we'd even set off the other 3 girls had a firm speaking to by an elderly, yet crazy, French woman about the noise that they were creating and that they should respect other travelers who were trying to sleep (It was 5.30pm and I thought we were making more noise than them!) A trip to the trains bar, and we were ready to begin the cards. Jodie got a little to into the card game, and obviously forgot where she was and expressed her frustration with the worst of all the profanities, much to the amusement of us. We were certain crazy French lady would be marching up to us again in no time.

2 hours later, after we'd crossed under the English Channel, and travelled through some French countryside, we had arrived in Brussels. We checked into our hotel, which was directly opposite the train station and scrubbed the travel scum of us. We then met up with Jo and Jordan, who were staying not that far up the road from us, and set off to find some dinner. After walking for quite a way we were unable to find anything, so we settled with the "Quick Burger Restaurant" In the train station. We said Au Revior to Jo and Jordan for the evening and then enjoyed a pint of Belgium's finest. It was then off to bed for our last good nights sleep for the next few days.

We headed down to the train station at 8 and jumped on the train to Leuven. Jo and Jordan had planned to get on the same train, as well as Jordan's friend Lachie who was travelling in from outside Brussels. We assumed that we wouldn't see each other on the train, but we'd meet up at the Leuven Station. Something must've stuffed up because we didn't see each other until we arrived at the campsite. We spent over an hour queuing for the special shuttle buses which were taking us to the festival ground. We finally met up with Jo and Jordan at the bus drop and we all headed up to the festival grounds together. We arrived at the campsite that Matt and Jodie had tickets for (ours were unallocated and could apparently camp anywhere) but it had sold out, so Dan, Jo, Jordan and I had to shove off to A4 where there was still space available. The temperature by now was close to 40 (I have no idea, but it was bloody hot), and we had to wait in a massive queue/group to get into the campsite. Another hour and a half of waiting and we finally found our spot and erected the tents. We lathered up in sunscreen then headed out the bars and market stalls, which lined the street from the campgrounds to the festival site. We caught up with Matt and Jodie, grabbed some lunch and a few beers before making the trek down to the festival site.

The bands didn't start until 4pm, so we just checked out the festival site and tried to cool ourselves down from the unrelenting heat. The first day we stayed at the main stage for the whole day and saw:

Eagles of Death Metal - "Can you dig it?" "Mama" and "Baby Boy" were the lead singers most favourite phrases of the day

Lily Allen - She was tops, even after stripping down to bra and undies, and eventually pulling the wig off

Dave Matthews Band - Also very good, I missed the end because I needed to visit the set of M*A*S*H*. I needed a panadol, and the only way to get it was to be escorted 'backstage' to the medical tent, which seriously looked like a set of the TV show. I did get to hear my two favourite songs 'Ants Marching' and 'Crash' from inside the comfort of the air conditioned medical tent.

Placebo - Freaky guitarist, but I enjoyed them thoroughly

Oasis - Kinda mellow and boring, but we didn't know most of the songs. We left halfway through and heard all the classics from "What's the Story Morning Glory" on the walk home.

We didn't stay for The Prodigy but according to Jordan and Jo, we missed out.

The End of Day 1!

After waking up in a pool of sweat around 7am, I tried to sleep on the grass in the shade of our tent for an hour or so. We toileted, brushed teeth, baby wiped (showering alternative) and dressed ourselves ready for the days events. We met Matt and Jodie up at the Korean Snack food van. I ate breakfast here every day. Best egg and bacon sandwich for €2.50. A bit of a sit and possibly a beer and we eventually headed up to the festival site. Of all the 4 days, I was least enthused for Saturdays line up. Turned out to be one of my most favourite days. The general feeling was pretty relaxed, even though it was still stifling hot. We chilled out on some tables and chairs in the eating area under a poor attempt at shade sails. Now onto day 2's music:

Henry Rollins Spoken Word - First up on the Pyramid Marquee (Smaller of the two stages). He was very entertaining, very political, and quite easy to just sit and listen to him babble on with what's wrong with the world. Very different for a festival, but good nonetheless.

After Henry the boys (Jordan, but mainly Lachie) decided to take up the challenge that Rock Werchter organizers put together. Collect 20 empty drink cups off the ground to get 1 free drink token. Very easy to achieve when the temperature is scorching and there's 80,000 people drinking their days away. After not long at all Lachie had collected what we deemed a small 'Anaconda' - or a snake of cups. It was quite good to go on a 5 minute walk to the bar or toilet and collect enough cups for a free beer for the walk back.

The Streets - Jodes and I soaked up the sun (and caught up on a few zzz's) outside the Pyramid Marquee while the streets were playing - Matt and Dan spent some quality time together, inside the massive tent. They were quite entertaining and got the crowd going.

Bloc Party - After The Streets we headed back over to the main stage and caught the end of Bloc Party's set. Pineapple head black man was fun, I enjoyed the 15 minutes I caught of it.

The Killers - Entertaining, but proved to be a very good time to go hunt for cups. Good times for group sing-along's, and the beginnings of some slightly drunken behaviour.

Inbetween the Killers and the next band, we put in a group effort and collected one of the biggest cup anacondas ever seen. People stopped to take photos and congratulate us. It was insane. I think we managed 11 free drinks and 4 massive plastic groundsheets. Was one of the highlights of the day, even though it involved collecting dirty cups off the ground. We claimed our drinks, downed them and headed off to one of the best moments of the festival…

Lady GaGa: I wasn't even wanting to go see this woman, as I only know that one incredibly stupid song, 'Poker Face', and to be honest I found it strange that she'd worked her way onto a lineup at a festival such as Werchter. We were expecting flaming boobs (as previously seen at Glastonbury), instead we were treated to a whole set of her wearing no pants, and she ended wearing a jacket made of bubbles (Even proud to show off her camel toe!!) We drank, and dance, and sang, even the metal boys Lachie and Jordan seemed to have a blast - it must've been all the free beer we'd consumed. We probably ruined the Gaga experience for the 100 people around us, but we had a blast.

We caught the very beginning and end of the Coldplay set. A band, that bores me and we didn't want to hang around to have Chris Martin and his buddies get us all melancholy after the fun we'd just had.

Althought it did take us over 1.5hours to walk the 800m or so back to the campsite with all the crowds, at some stage we weren't even walking at all. As Jordan called it, "The Death March"

End of Day 2!!

After another sleep on the grass in the morning, a breakfast of Korean egg and bacon sandwich, and a couple of breakfast beers, we made our way off to the festival in the scorching sun again. I was a bit excited about most of the bands on todays lineup:

Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Jordan recommended we catch this guitar duo, and I was very impressed. Just a guy and a girl, playing some amazing guitar. Very Spanish, flamenco like, but a lovely way to start the afternoon, drinking beers in the sun!

Limp Bizkit - Everyone was looking forward to what Fred Durst and his pals we're going to resurrect from 10 years ago. They were all we'd expected. They were really good, playing all their old hits (no new stuff, thankfully), but neglected to play Rollin'. The only disappointment.

Franz Ferdinand - Another good beery sing-along band. Again, enjoyable, but spoiled at the end with their drum breaking, and them all cracking the s***s and walking off stage.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dan disappeared into the front D-Barrier for this one. He loves them, we sat back and enjoyed them, but Dan came out at the end like a kid walking out of a candy shop. Jodie was amazed that it wasn't Tex Perkins (Apparently she gets the two old, hairy Aussie rockers confused). Disappointing there was no Kylie for a duet.

Kings of Leon - These guys rock. Friggin insanely awesome. Enough said.
(Although the lead singer could easily be interchanged with Charlie from Lost and no one would know the difference)

We didn't bother to hang around to see local DJ's - 2ManyDJ's close the main stage, instead it was off to the tent to get a couple of hours sleep before it became to hot to sleep again.

End day 3…

Final day. Everyone looking forward to Metallica. Another baby wipe shower, visit to the disgusting drop toilets, Korean breakfast and beers. Still as hot as the other days, the 4 days of sweat and grime was clinging to us all.

Bands today:

Mastodon - The 2 little metal boys (Jordan and Lachie) liked this, I think…. I just thought it was a few very hairy men, jumping and screaming around.

Seasick Steve - I am going to go on about this guy, cause he was unbelievable. I'd never heard of him up until this day, but was completely blown away by him. He is probably in his late 60's, sported a John Deere hat, overalls, and homemade guitar with attached hipflask. He played on his own with a drummer, real bluesy music. The whole crowd got right into it, clapping and singing a long. He got some young girl from the crowd up on stage and sung a love song to her (Although that was little creepy considering the probable 40 year age gap!)
He told his life story through his final songs, and is worth reading about. (Check out his wiki page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasick_Steve) He'd been abused by stepfather, homeless, all of the other stuff, but man he was awesome, probably in my favourite 2 or 3 that I saw at the festival.

The Mars Volta - Again, another band that didn't do much for me. It was during their set that finally we got some relief from the sweltering heat. All of a sudden the clouds came over and it just pelted down with rain. The temperature dropped by 20 degrees, and we all ended up being cold and wet. We had ponchos, but all of us were too slow getting them out (except Dan, who we all picked on for wearing a poncho before it had even begun raining) The Mars Volta then cracked the s***s because everyone was excited about the rain and they whinged that no one was there to listen to them. What did they expect? They were playing to a crowd of diehard Metallica fans.

Black Eyed Peas - I enjoyed drying out to Fergie and Will.I.Am and the Black Eyed Peas. No incidents from Fergie in the pants wetting department, as she is known for. Just an easy way to pass another hour.

Kaiser Chiefs - Probably another band that was high on the favourites list of the 4 days. High energy lead singer (He climbed the stage scaffolding, and ran right out into the crowd), catchy songs and a good time slot (after the rain), made for a really fun hour.

Nine Inch Nails - Trent and his buddies announced that this was the end of NIN. They were ok, but I've never really been a fan. They ended with the Johnny Cash song "Hurt", which I've since learned was a NIN song, which Johnny Cash covered. Very nice.

Metallica - After being 20 minutes late onto stage at a festival where not one band begun 1 minute late added to the hype. I've never really been a big Metallica fan, but was looking forward to seeing them. Impressive lighting and opening caught my attention. Plenty of pyrotechnics, and fireballs shooting up the stage were fun too. 2.5hr set for a festival was a bit too much for me, so Matt, Jodie, Dan and I said farewell to Werchter before the crowds descended back to the campsite.

I will miss the awesome frites and mayo - which I enjoyed on a daily basis and the weird meatball things. For a festival, really yummy, and affordable food.

Next morning we were up early, packed up the tents and bags and jumped back onto the shuttle back to Leuven, to catch the train back to Brussels. After a quick baguette breakfast, we said our farewells to Jo, Jordan and Lachie who had to wait several hours to catch a train to Paris. Back on the Eurostar we were much more subdued that on the first trip over. I think I was asleep before we were even out of Brussels and only woke up as we arrived into London.

It was nice to be home and to be able to use a flushing toilet and to finally be able to have a shower and wash off the 4 days of grime. All in all, it was a fantastic 4 days, shared with great people, and well worth sacrificing my job for!!!



P.S. I will add some extra photos taken from the Rock Werchter site, to show bits and pieces that I didn't get on my camera

P.P.S. As I write this it is the last day of term before 'Summer' holidays. It is currently thundering, lightning, raining and about 12 degrees!!!

Off on our big trip Monday, I will try to keep the blog updated regularly. Try, at least.