Nostalgia Time...

As we leave the special shuttle buses leading to Werchter, a very strange pilgrimage to the Flemish countryside begins. Hundreds of men and women head towards a strategic point visible in the distance: a gray pyramid-shaped marquee. Some are already dancing to the music that can be heard vibrating.

Finally, the long-awaited moment arrives. The gates appear, gigantic and closely guarded. The smell of urine and fries assaults the nostrils. As the sun beats down, we pass through the airlock that opens the festival gates. An astonishing spectacle unfolds.

On the sun-yellowed grass, the audience lies in rows on towels or blankets. A few women, with navel piercings and bikinis, show off their summer tans. Others, more cautious, slather on sunscreen. Refrigerated boxes litter the ground. Without the background music that provides the transition between concerts, you'd think you were on a beach in Ostend.

While the twenty- and thirty-year-olds were the majority at the Rock Werchter festival, from June 29 to July 2, this Saturday, it was the forty- and fifty-year-olds who crowded the lawn of the TW Classics. Before the concert, more than 50,000 tickets had already been sold.

The program has something to delight even the most nostalgic, as confirmed by Alain, wearing a yellow advertising hat: "I feel like I'm 20 years younger. Sting, Bryan Adams, they're all my youth, my first parties..." For this rejuvenation, many came with "old friends." Some even splashed each other like kids with water pistols...

At 1 p.m., Arsenal opened the show, followed by Roxy Music, who truly wowed the audience. Around 4:30 p.m., Simple Minds took the stage. Despite a thunderous entrance, the audience struggled to get going. Most of the spectators at the back of the meadow remained seated on their blankets. It wasn't until the Charlie Burchill/Jim Kerr duo sang 'Mandela Day' that the audience began to be transported. English musicians shouted 'I Like It' and 'Come On Baby,' and Simple Minds responded with their only hit in the US: 'Don't You (Forget About Me)'. After the applause died down, Simple Minds gave way to the festival host, who announced that Justine Henin had lost at Wimbledon. A loud 'oh' of disappointment rippled through the crowd. But the show immediately continued.

The next artist, Simply Red, adopted a more instrumental style, leaving plenty of room for brass improvisations and African sounds. Admittedly, however, this only won over the audience in the front rows.

The highlight of the show was undoubtedly Sting. As soon as he took the stage, the audience rose as one. A sign that the artist truly moved the audience, they remained standing throughout the concert. The first song, "Message In A Bottle," truly roused them. More intimate pieces followed, such as "Walking On The Moon," during which couples embraced. Guitar and djembe solos completed the show. And when Sting left the stage at 9:45 p.m. after a wild "Roxane," he was loudly called back. The singer gently concluded his brilliant performance with "Fragile." By the end of the concert, a crowd was already milling around the park exit, while Bryan Adams' fans made their way to the front of the stage.

(c) La Libre Belgique

When Sting Plays the Police...

In the space of a week, the average age of Werchter's population easily doubled. Indeed, one week after hosting dEUS, Placebo, Muse, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Werchter Plain dedicated a special day this Saturday to the bands that wrote the first and greatest pages in the festival's history.

Indeed, 18 years earlier, Sting and Bryan Adams shared the same bill as the one dedicated to them at the Torhout-Werchter festival, which, at the time, spanned several days and two different venues.

At that time, Bryan Adams truly stole the show from Sting, who was then headlining, with a thunderous show that even led to the release of an album, "Live! Live! Live!", recorded in the pouring rain. This time, the opposite happened. The Canadian's performance paled in comparison to Sting's concert. He didn't hesitate to draw heavily from The Police's repertoire to deliver a set that brought the 55,000 forty-somethings to their knees. With his bass around his neck, Sting began his concert by launching into the immortal "Message In Bottle" in a tone as rock as the original version. He then followed with a completely mind-blowing "Synchronicity II" before continuing his Policemania with a purer-than-ever "Walking On The Moon."

The audience wanted more, and Sting then made a foray into his solo career to perform "Englishman In New York" and the all-too-little-known "Shape Of My Heart." Sting's repertoire had plenty to surprise, and the surprise was considerable when he performed the introduction to "Demolition Man" before subtly slipping into The Police's repertoire with an extended version of "Driven To Tears." The ambient madness intensified a little further with 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', followed by a version of 'Desert Rose' with strong Middle Eastern overtones. And the hysteria didn't diminish one bit when the Brit and his band ended their performance with a medley of 'Roxanne' and 'So Lonely' that had its full effect before leaving the plains with the notes of 'Every Breath You Take' and then a hearty 'Fragile'...

Even though he opened with 'So Far, So Good', Bryan Adams struggled to hold his own. Even though he also extensively explored his glorious repertoire with 'Somebody', 'Summer Of 69', and even 'Cuts Like A Knife', the Canadian delivered a rather bland set. Sting thus rewrote, in his own way, the history of the Werchter Festival, dedicated to the classics of those who made the festival's heyday.

Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music's early afternoon performance set the tone, notably with the rendition of "Virginia Plain," written 34 years ago! And what about the standards "Lets Stick Together," "Love Is the Drug," or John Lennon's "Jealous Guy."

Scotland's Simple Minds, for their part, began their show in a minor key before returning to more positive intentions with the essential hits that have remained, such as "All the Things," "Waterfront," "Don't You," "Sanctify," and "Alive & Kicking." Dressed in a shirt embroidered with colourful flowers, Mick Hucknall and his band Simply Red delivered a show of extraordinary musical quality, but whose tempo hardly suited the atmosphere that reigns at a festival of this magnitude. Purists will have appreciated the versions of 'Debris', 'Come To My Aid', 'Right Thing' or the excellent 'If You Don't Know Me By Now'... In the end, the 55,000 veterans could go home satisfied to their offspring. Yes, the old ones had also had the right to have fun on their Werchter...

(c) La Dernière Heure by Frédéric de Bioley

Without bottles...

When Sting, now 54, appeared on stage, it was impossible to find a free spot at the cosy garden party. It was immediately noticeable that the former Police singer had turned up the volume considerably more than his predecessors. Opener "Message In A Bottle" blasted from the speakers and immediately blew the crowd away. It took some getting used to, though, after that final scream-jerker from Simply Red. Bottles didn't fly through the air like in '90, but a single cup of beer did. The charismatic singer, who looked fit and muscular, effortlessly strung together his world hits, accompanied by the ecstatic drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. Somewhere in the middle of the set, he surprised everyone with the stunning Beatles cover "Day In The Life." He closed unexpectedly with the beautiful "Desert Rose," "Every Breath," the powerful rock number "Next To You," and the ultra-romantic "Fragile." The audience saw it was good, and so did we—by far the best performance of the evening.

(c) Het Nieuwsblad