Domino Suffers Knock-On Effect

The 15th edition of Domino Festival will be its last because organisers feel the Belgian event is in danger of “degenerating into a formula.”

Ancienne Belgique in-house promoter Kurt Overbergh, who started the event in 1999, found it hard to cram all that he wanted to do into a week-long festival.

“I’ve had to kill my darling,” he told Pollstar. “After 15 editions it became a victim of its own programme schedule.”

He says he prefers to continue doing a series of evenings throughout the year than continue with the festival, so “the spirit of Domino will prevail.”

Last year the AB was among the handful of Brussels venues to team to produce the city’s new Autumn Falls event, a mini version of The Netherlands’ Eurosonic-Noorderslag or Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival.

Only 700 showed for the first Domino, which was staged in 250-capacity and 2,000-capacity rooms in the AB, but by 2005 there were nearly 10 times as many as it grew a reputation for being quick to spot upcoming talent.

The list of now well-known acts to have played Domino include Nithin Sawhney, Sigur Ros, Goldfrapp, Lambchop, Ed Harcourt, Belle & Sebastian, Einsturzende Neubaten, and LCD Soundsystem.

Belle & Sebastian returns for this year’s Domino (April 6-14), along with a lineup that also includes Darkstar, Meat Beat Manifesto, Cindytalk, Agnes Obel, Battles, Dan Deacon, and Jóse González & The Göteborg String Theory.