1975 - 1985

Rock Werchter has many rich uncles, but only one spiritual father. Hedwig Demeyer was a student in engineering, who used to entertain the Hageland region with his Flash Experience disco during weekends. Thanks to his passion for music, he would soon start organising concerts and establish a little festival. In 1975, the late Jokke Kerkhofs (Big Bill’s drummer) did not realise he kicked off a long tradition. Where? In a tent set up on the ground of a local Werchter youth movement. The most notable visitor was a reporter called Herman Schueremans of Muziek Express (a Dutch magazine), who was the only person to apply for a Rock & Blues Festival press card. He was organising his own festival in nearby Herent and was trying hard to become a concert promoter. The two youngsters got along instantly. At the other side of the country, Schueremans convinced Noel Steen of Koekelare to join the festival adventure. The idea: to present the same line-up both in Torhout on Saturday and in Werchter on Sunday of the first weekend of July.

Torhout/Werchter or T/W was born on July 6 and 7 of 1977. It was the very first “double festival”. Have you spotted Werchter’s favourable combination of figures: 7/7/77? 1978 was even more crucial. It was an absolute key year which bore the source code for the festival’s future growth. Even a huge tent accommodating 5,000 people turned out to be way too small. So the next summer, the organisers decided to move to new and bigger premises. The 1978 line-up was a diverse but very logical blend. Gruppo Sportivo and Dr. Feelgood made it to the festival thanks to the concert circuit Schueremans was trying to establish in Flanders at that time; Raymond van het Groenewoud was the first Fleming who knew how to rock in his mother tongue; new-wave bands The Runaways and Talking Heads were forerunners of new times. So in aggregate, you could see an international and varied line-up the totality of which outdid the individual components.

In those years, rock was not exactly top-class sport yet. But at least a number of bands did manage to sell out venues like Vorst Nationaal. Furthermore, British and American bands – especially new names – did not tend to come and play in small countries like Belgium. It was a risky operation for both the band and the promotor. It was hard to set up a tour. At the time, there were not that many rock loving souls and venues, since rock music was still a matter for young people (read: 15 to 25-year olds), hence a significantly smaller audience as well. A festival was a good way to overcome these disadvantages. A strong line-up of big acts could seduce the masses. And a big audience could seduce big foreign names. It is no coincidence that some of Europe’s first and major festivals are located in small countries: Pinkpop (NL), Roskilde (DK) and Werchter (B). It was an interesting way to present an international line-up without taking too many risks. It is also important to know that back then, the concert season went from September to June. So there was nothing during the summer months. Festivals were some kind of closing festivities: crowning glory. Just look at Glastonbury (end of June/early July), Pinkpop (early June), Roskilde (early July) and Werchter (early July).

Four bands determined Torhout-Werchter’s early years: Talking Heads, Dire Straits, U2 and Simple Minds. T/W helped them on their way to fame, and their glory reflected on the festival. In 1982 T/W celebrated its first lustre. The numbers were impressive. In five years, the number of visitors rose from 5,000 to 65,000. The programming became an indisputable format which would persist until the mid-Nineties: eight or nine acts on one festival day, presenting a nice mix of new talent, hot artists in the prime of their life and evergreens. T/W would also guarantee that no name was/is announced officially unless it is 100% certain that he is actually coming. Cancellations remain rare, even now when line-ups have become as long as the menu of a Chinese restaurant.

T/W has always had a soft spot for homegrown bands. At the end of the 70s, Belgium’s rock scene was waking up at last. T/W took notice and showed a great deal of sympathy by asking the greatest local names to kick off the festival. But slots were really expensive, so for Allez Allez, Jo Lemaire & Flouze, De Kreuners, T.C. Matic and their peers an opening slot was all they would ever get. Only Raymond van het Groenewoud did a bit better. Remarkable: between 1983 (The Scabs) and 1993 (once more The Scabs) no Belgian band made it to the line-up at all. In the mid-Nineties, the dEUS generation changed things completely. The rest is history.

It kept raining record years. In 1984, T/W rounded the cape of 100,000 visitors. In 1985, 63,000 people showed up in Werchter alone! In the same year, cycling enthusiast Herman Schueremans was beside himself with joy. Ludwig Wijnants won the seventh stage of the Tour de France one day before the festival, in his Tönissteiner-Torhout Werchter-BASF-Humo jersey. On the fourth of July of 1987, Herman Frison won the fourth stage in a Roland-TW jersey.

But more things were going on as well. In 1984, Herman Schueremans and Hedwig Demeyer founded a stage company called Stageco in the chicory village of Werchter. Their ‘steel-tower system’, which had been brought to perfection through T/W, revolutionized the industry. During the 90s, the company boomed and went on tour with U2, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Metallica. Speaking of technics: in the early years of T/W, light and sound were transported from Torhout to Werchter at night. Now those were hot summer nights: things had to be taken down, re-loaded, transported, unloaded and set up within the space of ten hours.

HOT DUTCH TOILETS. Three topics of conversation dominated the 80s: a) the Dutch, b) the toilets and c) the heat. Torhout-Werchter has always exerted an attraction on our northern neighbours. In 1986, no less than 16,000 Dutchmen visited Werchter. That is one visitor in four. According to the Dutch media, the main cause for this enchantment was: the Belgian atmosphere. The toilets became a running gag: there were more every year but never enough. Over the years, they have grown into a separate sanitary village. Things can really heat up in early July, especially for front-row fanatics. So the fire brigade would come in to cool things off.

By 1987 Torhout-Werchter had become a fully fledged festival, presenting one festival day with nine artists, two times in a row. There was one stage, no video walls and the camp site was no absolute necessity yet. So the day would start and end with a huge traffic jam. A ticket cost 850 Belgian francs (21 Euros). Torhout-Werchter was a group thing. You went preferably with some friends (from school, a youth club... ) and by bus. Good appointments were crucial, since no-one had a mobile phone yet. So huge flags were planted,which also served to cheer on favourite bands. Dress code: short pants were not unusual for boys, merchandising was still limited. In 1987, Torhout and Werchter drew 52,000 spectators each. Headliners were Iggy Pop, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Pretenders, Eurythmics and Peter Gabriel. The festival was still virtually sponsor-free. First sign of maturity: Gabriel and The Pretenders made a fuss about the goblets sponsor Humo had made with their name on. Sign 2: Eurythmics and Gabriel asked the press to keep out of the front-stage. In 1986, the festival welcomed the first minister in office: Patrick Dewael, then minister of Cultural Affairs.