2025 Impact Intl. UK/Euro Honoree: Herman Schueremans

HERMAN SCHUEREMANS
CEO, Managing Director
Live Nation Belgium

‘WORK HARD AND ENJOY EVEN HARDER. CARPE DIEM’

Not many contemporary music festivals in Europe have been around for half a century. Rock Werchter is one of them. Its architect, a then 19-year-old Herman Schueremans, who serves as CEO and managing director of Live Nation Belgium, has been promoting the event since its inception in 1975.

The fest was advertised as a “T-Dansant,” the original name for Sunday afternoon dance parties in Belgium. Rock Werchter has grown into a musical and culinary extravaganza, welcoming 88,000 guests per day. It has brought the world’s greatest artists to the small town of Werchter and played a major part in putting Belgium on the map as an important date on any European trek.

Schueremans explains that his team’s continuity of delivering hospitality at their events, which include the acclaimed TW Classic, Graspop Metal Meeting and Pukkelpop, is the result of realizing that “we are only as good as our last show.” He adds that this mindset is the only way of “facilitating growth and keeping
up the quality of shows and festivals on all levels.”

Schueremans has also played key roles in the foundation of concert production mainstays Stageco and EML, now part of PRG, while Rock Werchter itself led to the formation of the Power Shop, which specializes in mobile and temporary, environmentally friendly power supplies.

His passion for production is on full display at Rock Werchter, where he takes pride in allowing stadium-sized setups, which he credits for repeat visits from artists like Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighters.

Looking back at such a legacy, what’s next? Schueremans says he’s “working on the succession. I have a super strong team with a lots of experience and know-how in the art of combining passion with realism. I learn a lot from them and they learn a bit from me. It is like a team at a Michelin-starred restaurant.”

And it’s a team that has fully embraced their fearless leader’s motto: “Work hard and enjoy even harder. Carpe diem.”