Dour Festival 2015

"DOOOOOUUUUUUURRRREEEEEUUUHHHHHHH!"

This war cry echoed during 5 days of alternative music in the small Belgian village of Dour.
In the middle of
nowhere, not far form the French border, the 2015 edition welcomed 215,000 music lovers over the 5 days.
The atmosphere of the festival: relaxed and musical. Most people's priority is to discover new talent, and see their favorite artists, not get wasted like in a lot of festivals nowadays.

Bar du Petit Bois

The music there is far from the top 40, with the only big headliner being Snoop Dog (who in my opinion gave a disappointing performance).
Dour encourages sub-genres, alternative music and variety. While the majority is electronic music, you will also find Reggae, Blues, Indie Rock, Metal, Ska even Bluegrass!

Needless to say Evie and I were in heaven and saw as many artists as we could, which resulted in a timetable similar to this for 5 days:
9 am - 11 am: Wake up/coffee/breakfast
11 am - 3 pm: Chilling in the Camping
4 pm - 4 am: MUSIC
4 am - 9 am: Sleep.

Quite a heavy schedule for 5 days of madness.

Here is my review in 5 words or less of all the artist I
had the chance of seeing.

Wednesday 15th July:

• SBTRKT (pr. Subtract): A dream come true
• 2manydjs: French Touch with class

Thursday 16th July:

• Flume: Good music, terrible live.
• The Underachievers: Way too much swearing
• Siriusmodeselektor: Mind-Blowing collaboration
• Squarepusher: Fast paced Bass madness
• Carl Craig: Old-school Rave
• Kaytranada: Chill
• Blues Pills: Mesmerizing singer and guitarist
• The Prototypes: Crazy DnB
• Isaac Delusion: Evie's favorite discovery
• FKJ: Funkiest one-man band

Blues Pills

Friday 17th July:

• The Wombats: Flashback to teenage years
• Adam Beyer: Still awesome
• C2C: Unbelievable turntablism performance
• Nina Kraviz: Short but trippy
• Julio Bashmore: Amazing variety of House
• Noisia: AAAAHHHHHHHHH! =D
• Drenge: Mehlectro Rock
• Zola Jesus: Self-centered singer, crap show
• Worakls: Always incredible
• Superpoze: Clam and complex beauty
• La Fine Equipe: Very cool
• Dope D.O.D: Craziest performers ever
• Thylacine: Beautifully French

Saturday 18th July:

• Ms. Lauryn Hill: 30 mins late and boring
• DJ Hazard: Very good, soon in Fabric
• Lone: Chill and beautiful
• The Drums: Good ol' Indie
• Dirtyphonics: Crazy Dubstep quadruplets
• Rone: Absolute genius, magical live
• DC Breaks: Pretty good as always

The Wombats

Sunday 19th July:

• Snoop Dog: Didn't seem like he cared
• Nneka: Great singer
• Santigold: Eccentric and slightly boring
• DubFx: Unfortunately moved to regular Reggae
• Hudson Mohawke: Heavy and amazing sound
• Nils Frahm: Best live of the festival (post will follow)
• Chinese Man: Brass & Hip-Hop had a baby
• Fritz Kalkbrenner: Live production and singing!
• Infected Mushroom: Acid Trance God
• JME: Short but good Grime
• Scuba: Always the best
• Little Big: Deranged Russian HardTek
• Simian Mobile Disco: Incredible use of synthesizers
• Acid Arab: Electro meets the Maghreb