1989. A lot of things happened that year. Tiananmen was on fire, Nicolae Ceausescu was executed and George H. W. Bush was sworn in as President of the United States. In the meantime, Dour Festival took place for the first time in the little village of Dour. 2,000 people gathered around and eight Belgian bands were lined up on only one stage.
The festival got bigger year after year but its big turnout happened in 1995 when about 43,000 people gathered for three consecutive days. The Ramones, Public Enemy, dEUS, Supergrass and Mercury Rev among others were the impressive lineup.
13 years later the festival was proud to have six stages, more than a hundred bands and 144,00 people throughout the four days of festival, and bands like Gogol Bordello, Goldfrapp, Why?, The Raveonettes, The Meat Puppets, Life Of Agony, Ice Cube, Wu-Tang Clan, BATTLES and dozens of awesome DJs from all over the planet lined-up the festival that year, offering the most eclectic line-up of any festival of its genre.
How such a small village became the heart of one of Europe’s best festivals? Maybe it’s its consistency: the festival hasn’t changed any of its policies over the years. The main goal has stuck the same: gather people from all over the world with different cultures and backgrounds in one place, even if that place had to be a small village that no one had ever heard about before.
The question is: is Dour Festival really that cool? Hell yeah! Anyone who’s been to Dour Festival has a funny story to tell about it. There’s only one thing that bothers me a little: Dour Festival has become too much about electronic music, lining up fewer rock bands year after year.
Here’s a list of the bands I’m going to see and cover for Ice Cream Man @ Dour Festival:
Santigold, Sepultura, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Killing Joke, Sepultura, Walls of Jericho, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Mercury Rev, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Rinocerose, Digitalism, Au Revoir Simone, St. Vincent, Deerhoof, … And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Animal Collective, Fuck Buttons, Marnie Stern, Dropkick Murphys, Arsenal, The Gaslight Anthem, Gojira, The Death Set, O’Death, The Dodos, 65daysofstatic, I’m From Barcelona, Roots Manuva, Black Milk, Aphex Twin, Anthony B, 5 Elements of Hip Hop (Beastie Boys, Cyress Hill, Rock Steady Crew and The Roots), Crystal Castles, Soldout, Caribou, AN Albatross and Venetian Snares.
Here’s a video that tells you all about the festival:
[dailymotion x91g2u]
