Rock Werchter 2008

I survived my first rock festival, through the rain and mud and lack of sleep and portable toilets. Despite feeling rather exhausted a lot of the time, I now look back fondly on the 4 days at Rock Werchter and I definitely saw some great shows: Radiohead, REM, Gossip, Ben Folds, Grinderman. I was introduced to the sensation that is Mika and was shocked to find out that I actually knew a couple of songs. And shocked that everyone seemed so into the music, or maybe they were just happy for the festival to be starting (it was the first day) and enjoying dancing in the thunderstorm that bucketed down on us. I saw a lot of bands I had heard of but never heard, like Kaiser Chiefs, Kings of Leon and The Editors. They were all ok, but I can't say I'm a new fan of any of them.

The photos I took aren't brilliant (it was always either too dark or too far away), but the salvagable ones are here. I have some videos too, but I'll need to upload them first.

Daily life at the fest was pretty relaxed: see a band, eat, drink, hang out on the field, repeat. It was tiring though, especially since sleeping was not easy. People were up all night in the campground and by the time they might have finally headed to bed at 4 or 5, you only had a few hours before the sun started to shine on the tent, making it unbearably hot by 9. There were always weirdos to keep you entertained on the festival grounds though, or people running around picking up empty cups, since 20 used cups would get you a free drink ticket. One day we were near some people who attached a few empty cups to a string, which they would yank if anyone bent down to pick them up. Cheap laughs, but it was something to pass the time.

On the second night, lying there, unable to sleep, I thought to myself that I'd never do a festival again. But now I'm not so sure. If the lineup was right I'd think about it, so maybe I'll be heading there again next year...