Werchter Gets Its Own Museum

Herman Schueremans’ 32-year-old Rock Werchter celebrated its position as one of Europe’s top festivals by opening a museum that details its history.

It opened July 8th, the day of TW Classic, and 3,500 of the 55,000 crowd wandered in and checked out old posters, knickknacks, photographs and memorabilia.

The “classic” bill included Roxy Music, Simple Minds, Sting, Bryan Adams, Arsenal and Simply Red. The Belgian media singled out Sting for rave reviews.

A week earlier (June 29th to July 2nd), the actual Rock Werchter Festival – twice an ILMC award winner – attracted 320,000 visitors across the four days.

The site basked in a heat wave throughout as Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Who, Depeche Mode, Kaiser Chiefs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, dEUS, Placebo, Hooverphonic, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Robert Plant & The Strange Sensations, Franz Ferdinand, Sigur Ros, Deftones, Manu Chao, Kaizers Orchestra, Editors, Muse, The Raconteurs, and Arctic Monkeys were among those keeping the crowd entertained.

– John Gammon