Dour Festival

Inkyhead

Hi folks

Has anyone been to Dour Festival?

I'd really like to hear about your experiences if so. Would you recommend it? Atmosphere, campsite, crowd, food & drink, getting there, everything really.

Lineup is amazing this year. Very little online about it though!

I'm torn between this and EXIT in Serbia, can't make up my mind.

Any input appreciated!

LeftBlank

I have been a couple of times, last time was 2007. It's mostly pretty laid back. Average age of the audience was probably in the Oxegen-area, certainly most people I talked to were late teens/early 20s.

Food and drink is ok, though there isn't a huge selection and it wouldn't be anything like what you might find at EP, for example. (no Pieminister!). Food is mostly just fast food and limited range of beer. Food/drink also works on a system of tokens which can be a bit of a pain.

One thing that I really didn't like was that it got very hot quite early in the morning and the music went on until about 3am, so there was much opportunity for sleep. Also the heat/lack of rain meant that the whole site turned into a massive dust bowl by Friday.

Getting there was easy. I got a flight to Chaleroi, then a train to Saint-Ghislain (think I had to change in Brussels). There's a bus from there to the site which I think is included in the cost of your ticket.

Overall, for the price, I don't think it can be beaten. Just it wouldn't be quite up to EP-level in terms of facilities.

fits

In terms of selection of bands and sound quality, its wonderful. Its just a pure music festival, none of your ep type frills. Definitely worth checking out.

When I went first day was a mud bath then it got incredibly hot. Bring a gazebo or something to shade your tent!

Inkyhead

Thanks guys!

According to the website you can't bring cans or glass bottles onto the campsite. You're allowed plastic bottles, but there's only so much hard liquor/mixer I could drink over the 4/5 days! It does say that booze is available in the campsite though, presuming this would be only during the days, is this a bar selling pints I wonder?

Food I'm not so pushed about, I can pick up bits & pieces here and there in the usual festival shtylee. It says there are 'cooking islands' in the campsite too which could be used.

I had the exact same worries about sleep as ye have confirmed! I reckon it'll be like sleeping in a greenhouse! And it gets hot in Belgium in July. It's bad enough if you're hitting the tent after dawn at the Picnic, I can only imagine how much worse it'd be. Plus for this kind of lineup it's not out of the question to have indulged in a little something more than booze, let's be blunt about it. Which would make it ten times worse. Was seriously considering one of these http://www.dourfestival.be/en/camping/flexotels/. They're in the normal campsite I think so you wouldn't miss out on any of the craic

fits

I would definitely do that. (but my days of camping at festivals are over)

Inkyhead

Well, Dour has won me over. I can get over the alleged poor organisation for that amazing lineup and ease of getting there. Apparently there's "a lovely little lake near the campsite to cool down if the weather's too hot", better pack the speedos :cool: