Groezrock 2011
It may seem that summer has begun early this year with uncharacteristically high temperatures right across Europe, but it would also seem that the festival season starts earlier every year too. These days, if you want to, you can attend festivals from Easter weekend right through to the beginning of September.
This year is no different, with the 20th Anniversary of Europe’s (if not the world’s) premiere Punk and Hardcore festival Groezrock, which takes place yearly at Easter in Meerhout, Belguim. Originally starting out as a 400 capacity event, the festival has grown to accommodate close to 32,000 people.
Groezrock is renowned for its world class line up and only charging 1,66 Euro for a beer, which knocks the current UK festival price of £4.80 for a drink into a cocked hat! Add to this temperatures that topped the mid eighties and you have the ingredients for a great weekend.
The festival organisers continually up the ante with ever increasing stellar line-ups and this year was no exception with highlights coming from industry stalwarts Dropkick Murphys and NoFx. Attendees of Groez were also fortunate enough to see American punksters Descendents in fine form after reportedly bombing 2 days later at one London show, with singer Milo losing his voice and cancelling their other London date.
Performance of the weekend had to be Swedish punk band Millencolin who treated the audience to a complete playback of their 2000 seminal album, ‘Pennybridge Pioneers’. Some of the songs were seemingly played at double speed and crowd pleasers included ‘No Cigar’ (above), which found fame as a track on Tony Hawk’s skating games, and sing-along acoustic track ‘The Ballad’. Other great sets came from mid-billing acts such as Scottish emo rockers Twin Atlantic and American Ska punkers Streetlight Manifesto.
Keep an eye on www.groezrock.be for all new Groez news and roll on the rest of 2011 into 2012.
To see more photos, including Quinn the guitarist from platinum selling band The Used showing off his Shazam, see below:
