Where most festivals attempt to stuff themselves as firmly as possible into one, or maybe two genre niches, wedged in for all eternity, oblivious to any which world outside said niche, Belgium's rapidly growing
Dour Festival, taking place over potentially the busiest festival weekend, not only boasts one of said weekend's strongest line ups, but also focusses intensely on two particular genres, two genres often evaded by festival bookers: electronica and its antithesis, hardcore. Two sides to a particularly twinkling coin. That's not to say that the line up is comprised exclusively of MacBook twiddlers and slaves to distortion, as hiding out in the indie corner are
Foals, Jarvis' reformed
Pulp, ATP vets
Deerhoof and
Tim Harrington's
Les Savy Fav. Further Britpop is provided by Saturday night headliners
Suede, whilst hip hop heavyweights at this year's edition include
House Of Pain and
Public Enemy.
Laurent Garnier it was today announced, fresh from slaughtering
Bloc Weekend, will be getting all hot, bothered and red-faced over five hours, whilst British pioneers of a more electronic persuasion voyaging over to Hainaut include
Gold Panda,
Joy Orbison and
Pariah. Retrospective rawk comes from
Papa Roach and
Kyuss Lives! but we're most expectant of corporeal ravaging courtesy of
Mogwai and Sunday recuperation from
CocoRosie. Something for everyone, everyone to Dour.
The full line up, omitting today's latest additions including Laurent Garnier,
Booka Shade, Claude VonStroke,
Let Petits Pilous and
Kap Bambino amongst others, looks something like:
More info on this year's Dour can be found
here, whilst tickets for those in the UK can be acquired
here.
Similarly, for those travelling over from these shores,
The Big Green Coach fleet will Dour-bound. A seat aboard The Big Green Coach costs a mere £99 return, whilst a coach plus ticket package costs just £204. More info and tickets can all be found
here.
