Schueremans Happy With Polsslag

Herman Schueremans was happy with the first edition of Polsslag Festival, which attracted 12,000 to Hasselt Grenslandhallen April 19.

"Not bad for the first year of a new indoor event with new bands," he told Pollstar. The lineup included Millencolin, Goose, Infadels, Jose Gonzalez, Angels & Airwaves, The Breeders and a DJ set from Pendulum and did just more than 80 percent business.

The new event, which has been described as "Pukkelpop’s baby brother," "Pukkelpop indoors" and "a revamped version of Futurama," is Schueremans and Chokri Mahassine’s new effort to break new talent through a small indoor festival.

Polsslag isn’t strictly new as Schueremans and Mahassine ran a festival of the same name in 1990. Eighteen years later, they feel that the need to find a new platform for developing acts makes it worth dusting down for a second edition.

The first year’s figures suggest it has done well enough to be back next year.

In character, the new event is something like a new and bigger Futurama, the 3,500-capacity event Schueremans and Mahassine used to develop new talent until they decided it would be easier to add another stage to Pukkelpop.

It’s the second new festival Schueremans is involved with this year, following the announcement of Live Nation’s first Werchter Boutique (July 13).

Staged on the 70,000-capacity Parc Du Festival site one week after Rock Werchter, the press release bills Werchter Boutique as the company’s "nouvelle collection." LN’s TW Classic event, which is usually staged that weekend on the site, was moved to June 7.

The acts scheduled to strut the catwalk include Doe Maar, Santana, Crowded House, Tokio Hotel and Simply Red frontman Mick Hucknall.