Dour Festival is an annual music festival in the municipality of

Dour Dour (; pcd, Doû) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 16,810 inhabitants. The total area is 33.32 km2, giving a population density of 505 inhabitants per km2. ...

, Belgium. Since its creation in 1988, the festival has grown to an attendance of about 225,000 in 2015 (over 5 days). The first year, only five bands were programmed (including

Bernard Lavilliers Bernard Oulion (; born 7 October 1946 in Saint-Étienne), known professionally as Bernard Lavilliers (), is a French singer-songwriter and actor. Discography Albums Studio albums * ''Premiers pas...'' (1968) * ''Les poètes'' (1972) * ''Le St� ...

). The festival format now consists of 5 days, 9 stages and more than 280 bands and DJs. The festival's acts come from a wide range of genres, such as: electro,

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

, drum and bass, pop, R&B,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

, house,

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

, hip-hop,

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

, and more. Music is played for 17 hours each day, from 12pm until 5am. The festival attracts a very international and mixed crowd, at the 2009 event 40% of attendees were from

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, 32%

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

, 16% France, 5% the Netherlands, 5% the United Kingdom and 2% elsewhere. In January 2010, Dour Festival won the prize for the best medium-sized festival at the European Festival Awards.

Stages

The festival typically has the following stages: * The Last Arena (main stage) * Dance Hall (mostly electronical music) * Jupiler Boombox (

rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

, hip-hop,

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

and

R'n'B Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

) * La Petite Maison dans la Prairie (mostly

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

) * La Caverne (mostly

and heavy metal) * Red Bull Elektropedia Balzaal (dancefloor; mostly

, drum 'n' bass and

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

) * Dub Corner (

dubplates A dubplate is an acetate disc usually of 10 inches diameter, traditionally used by studios to test recordings prior to mastering for the subsequent pressing of a vinyl record, but pioneered by reggae sound systems as a way to play exclusive music ...

) * Le Labo (experimental scene) * La Cubanisto Dancing (only in 2016, different genres every day)

History

The first festival was held on September 16, 1989. The festival lasted just the one day, with only one stage and only French Speaking Bands. 2,000 people attended the inaugural event. The 1990 festival was of the same format but come 1991 the festival was spread across 2 days and a record 15 bands. In 1992 the festival went back to its original one day format, and attracted a record crowd of 4,000. Come 1993 and Dour Festival really started to grow, with 3 stages, 32 bands and 9,000 spectators over two days. In 1994, Dour welcomed the likes of

Pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material ...

and Blur, which helped draw 15,000. For 1995 only the festival was held over 3 days playing host to

The Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United S ...

Public Enemy "Public enemy" is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though the phrase had been used for centuries to describe ...

and 78 other acts and almost tripling its attendance to 43,000. The current festival format (over 4 days) was first held in 1996 and has constantly been growing ever since reaching a current attendance of around 150,000 each year.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 50.405319, 3.77479, format=dms, type:landmark_region:BE, display=title Rock festivals in Belgium Electronic music festivals in Belgium Music festivals established in 1989