A month has passed since the start of this wonderful experience, and the nostalgia has started kicking in. The hype, planning, booking, hassle and hysteria of this journey started around 7 months back in November, making sure to book the tickets immediately to avoid the heart-breaking chance of them selling out early (as they actually did), calling the various airlines and arguing about the prices, checking where on Earth we will be staying before and after the festival, and the tedious, troubling quest of writing down a full, complete list of all the necessary stuff and equipment to pack.
Two of my favourite hobbies in the world are travelling and seeing bands, and Rock Werchter was an excellent merge of both, offering some huge names like Metallica, Placebo, Arctic Monkeys, Damon Albarn, Pearl Jam, and so on, as well as giving us the opportunity to drop by some very amazing places in Leuven, Belgium. The flights also gave us a chance to touch the holy land of Germany, Frankfurt, but time unluckily restricted us to the airport only, which, in itself, is enormous. Arriving to Brussels, we bussed it to Leuven, and the adventure began.
What is beautiful about Leuven is, well, everything. The streets are spotlessly clean, and the air feels like Heaven itself. The number of cars is minimum, and bikes are literally everywhere. The Library of Leuven personally left me speechless, with hundreds of books and hundreds of years of knowledge gathered in one peaceful room. We were lucky enough to witness Belgium winning against USA in the World Cup, and the celebrations were intense. Beer was passed around like water, and when I say beer, I do not mean some cheap watery Skol, I actually mean real beer with 9% alcohol. Jupiler, Stella Artois, Leffe and Hoegaarder topped the list, with several other which are too complicated to pronounce (and I was, admittedly, a bit too drunk to remember the names).
Moving on to Werchter, it was an experience that happens only once in your life, even more considering it was my first time. The people are the best you will ever meet; everyone is helpful, friendly and amazingly joyful. There won’t be a minute where someone will stare angrily at you, or push you away if you step on their toes by accident, but rather they will smile at you, put their arms around your neck and sing along with you. The acts themselves were immaculate; there were bands, singers and dDJs that appealed to every different taste, and the performances were perfect — the vibe was always sky high, people were lively and danced, sang, and moshed along to every song. My personal favourites were Metallica — being at the very front gives you that proud feeling of success, and catching 4 guitar picks highlights it. Trentemoller and Moderat put on shows of the century, and I’d never thought that the way to get the best out of a DJ was to give them an actual band to perform live with! My guilty pleasure was Ellie Goulding, where I ended up watching her alone due to none of the other 35 Maltese people wanting to watch her with me; didn’t stop me from singing my heart out anyway.
The last performance of the festival (Stromae — amazing performer, and very much loved by the locals) led to bonfires, chants and security guards trying to send everyone back to camp, but we were pretty much drained and couldn’t wait to head back home for some well-needed sleep in an actual bed. Some travelling in Brussels, one sleep at the airport and a few hours later, we were back home, with only work to look forward to rather than the usual “Hmm, tomorrow we’ll see Kodaline, then Haim, then Biffy, then…” It was an amazing journey that taught us stuff, imprinted an experience in our brains and heart, and left us more eager for more bands, more concerts, more festivals.
