As some of you may have heard, the past weekend didn't exactly go as planned. As you could read in our , the concept was banging, the line-up was popping and all of the other ingredients that make a good festival were present. But there was no stopping Mother Nature, who caused storm and rain above the Spoor Oost site, home to Borgerwood festival.
In the early afternoon of July 25th Borgerwood organizer Bert Vanlommel made the sad announcement that the first day of the festival was cancelled due to the storm that tortured Antwerp past weekend. The back of the Borgerwood mainstage tore down, loads of electrical equipment came down and there was simply no fighting the storm. A major setback for the event but the indoor Borgerwood After Party at was still a major success with DJ's such as Kim Ann Foxman and Belgium's finest SixSixSixies bringing the house down.
The second day of the festival, July 26th did go through as planned even with the unstoppable rain. Bands like Soldier's Heart (currently in This Is Antwerp ), Oaktree & Avondlicht, Felix Pallas, Bed Rugs and STUFF got the crowd going. The beautifully decorated DJ Stage was occupied by godfather DJ Renaat Vandepapeliere, The Michael & Aguila, Rick Soundsystem and Schwarzkopf. Only a thousand of the estimated 5000 festival-goers turned up to be a beacon of light in the eye of the storm, which is still a pretty impressive turn out in such shitty weather .
Borgerwood's cancellation made it in every newspaper the next day and even national broadcaster VRT spent a segment on it in their 7 o'clock news. What a sad moment for the young creatives behind the festival. Luckily there is good news, we've just learned that in early September Borgerwood is planning an indoor (!) benefit to soften the financial blow and to ensure Borgerwood's future. More information on the upcoming benefit soon on and
Text by Laurent James
Pics by Laurent James