Roadkill Festival – aka one of the highlights of the year for Belgian stoner and rock ‘n roll fans – is held every year in the first weekend of August, in a little town called Waarschoot. This year it already was the 11th edition. In the early days, the festival took place in a barn. Nowadays, the festival takes place in a tent, in the middle of the fields and meadows.
| General | Day 1 | Day 2 |
General
Location
The road to the festival is quite idyllic. At one point the paved road stops and then you have to drive a few hundred meters on dirt roads, between cornfields and meadows filled with gently grazing cows, before you reach the parking lot and the festival area.
Festival grounds
In the back of the festival area is the tent where the gigs take place. It’s one of those typical ‘Marquee’ kind of tents, with a wooden floor in it. Always handy, with the unreliable Belgian weather. In the tent there’s just one stage, an official Roadkill merch stand and a large bar in the back. Next to the tent are the toilets (real toilets, not those awful portable Dixies). On the other side, there are a few food trucks and some stalls with merch and retro clothes. In the middle, there’s a little relax area with wooden tables and benches. It’s a nice place to sit a while and just have a chat with your friends. On the far left, there’s really cool place: a large platform filled with all sorts of motorbikes. There’s even a little ‘burn-out’ area where you can burn some rubber and do burn-outs on a motorbike.
Food and drinks
The food on Roadkill Festival is always excellent. This year there were several food trucks: Thai food, pasta and fries. Their food was alreally good and reasonably priced. Typical for the festival is the slow roasted whole pig, only available on Saturday. It’s soooo good!
At the big bar in the tent, you can buy Jupiler, water, and different kinds of soda. For those who want something stronger, there’s the Tropical Breakdown Bar organised by the people behind Night Of The Metal Breakdown on Friday, and a strong beer bar on Saturday.
Organisation
Roadkill Festival is very well organised. The organisation spoils its festival-goers each year with an excellent line-up, a nice mix of local bands, lesser known bands and bigger names. It’s one of those festivals where you can really discover a lot of new things.
The gigs as good as always start on time. The time schedule is tight, with only 15 minutes between the shows. But that’s just enough time to go to the toilet, get a beer and have a chat with friends.
The sound is very good each year. The only ‘complaint’ people sometimes have is that it’s bit too loud, but hey, that’s what ear plugs are for!
The organisation also managed to arrange some exclusive shows. If you wanted to see Raketkanon, Thundermother, Lords of Altamont or Pentagram somewhere in Belgium this summer, you had to come to Roadkill Festival. These bands only performed there.
All pictures by Vincent De Maertelaere. For more pics, look here and here.
