Dour Celebrates 21st

Belgium’s Dour Festival celebrated its 21st birthday with a record crowd that never dropped below 34,000 per day, leaving event spokeswoman Sophie Chevalier claiming it was the best edition in recent years.

The festival organisers have said part of Dour’s success is due to its international crowd. More than 70 percent who attended this year were from Belgium, a fairly equal split with the Wallonia and Flanders regions, but 16 percent were from France and 10 percent from the U.K. or Holland.

Two years ago Dour reconfigured its site to give the ever-growing crowd a little more space. The 36,000 who came on each of its last two days is probably as many as it can accommodate within the present parameters.

The 200 or so acts on the July 16-19 bill included Pet Shop Boys, Aphex Twin, Santigold, Mercury Rev, Digitalism, Sepultura, Late Of The Pier, Luke Slater, The Rascals, and Dropkick Murphys.