A few hours after the end of the 29th Dour Festival, the organisers made public initial figures, which stated an all-time attendance high with 242,000 festival-goers in five days. The 2017 Dour Festival marked a new attendance record with 242,000 festival-goers, or 7,000 more compared to the 2016 record (235,000). There were 37,000 on the Machine à Feu site, 48,000 on Thursday, 50,000 on Friday, 55,000 on Saturday, indeed an all-time record for any given day, and 52,000 on Sunday, or a daily average of 48,400.
Some 250 groups and artists, of which 55 this year have been Belgian, have ensured, on 7 stages, a very rich programme of musical diversity, and the desire to offer various temptations for discovery. The mega-campsite at the Dour Festival 2017 welcomed some 40,000 campers, including some who opted for “Green Camping”, a new accommodation offering based upon respect for the environment.
We may also note that, whilst talking figures, nearly 48 kilometres of barriers were erected to both delimit the extent of, and secure, the enormous Dour site. Moreover, the event mobilised 3,500 volunteers. Media attention was ensured by some 1,500 accredited journalists.
The organisers insisted that, “The Dour Festival once again showed that it remains the largest musical event in French-speaking Belgium.”
The overall budget for the Dour Festival is some €13 million euros, which generate both directly and indirectly the equivalent of 225 full-time jobs connected to the festival, in addition to 15 full-time jobs per year.
Moreover, the organisers announced at the beginning of Sunday evening that this year’s event went off without major clashes. A thousand police were mobilised during the whole event. The Red Cross, present on-site during the festival for 24 hours a day with effect from Wednesday, made one of the most significant announcements of the year for Wallonia on Friday at midday. It had exceeded the cap of 1,100 festival-goer medical cases.
The curtain is preparing to fall on the 29th Dour Festival. Concerts ended late on Sunday night, with Justice heading the bill.
The 30th Dour Festival is scheduled to take place 11th to 15 July, 2018. Some 500 tickets are now up for sale with effect from midday today at the website tickets.dourfestival.be for the preferential rate of €145.
The Brussels Times
