14-09-2024 Baroeg Open Air

It is a Saturday in September and that means it might be time for Baroeg Open Air. We find ourselves in the park where this one day festival takes place. It is a family festival (max 12.500 people) which means there will be music lovers who bring their children to get a great experience. Another reason people can bring their kids is because the atmosphere is all very laid back and cozy. Somehow it feels like one big happy family. All the volunteers who make Baroeg Open Air possible have a smile on their face and that rubs off on the audience.

There are 5 stages to showcase 32 artists at Baroeg Open Air where 2 of them are big tents and the other three are smaller stages. One of the bigger ones is the ‘electronic’ stage and as you can guess, this is the place for more electronic music. The other main stage is more rock and metal oriented. This makes the audience quite mixed as well but like I said it just feels like one big happy family.

We arrived on time for the doors to open. Which takes a bit of time and a lovely queue of enthusiastic people forms. But when the doors open we rushed off to see Cobra the Impaler from Belgium on the Jupilair stage while at the same time Amazing Disco Freaks open the Electronic stage. I missed out on these disco freaks but I have been told that I should definitely catch them next time. Cobra the Impaler delivered a good set but maybe because they were the first band it all feels a little tame. The audience needed to wake up in this tent. Which they did when Gutalax entered the stage. This odd grindcore party brings you a dixie, toiletpaper and a lot of fun on stage. The audience brings their toilet-brushes to hold up in the air and oink along with the singer. At least that is how this grind core sounded to me. Very entertaining but for me after a couple of songs I got the gist.

Cobra the Impaler

Gutalax

Time for a little walk throughout the park. There is a lovely festival market and enough places to get yourself a drink. Which I did and took a bit of time to make a decision on what to see as throughout the day the bands on the mainstages will start more or less at the same time. Great for those that like different kinds of music and only that kind of music but those that have a wide interest in genres well…sometimes had a hard decision to make. I have been told that La Bande-Son Imaginaire is something you must see. But Charlotte Wessels, ex Delain, was playing the other stage. Where to go. Maybe next time we can let you, Tempelores readers decide. I chose Charlotte as it might be a little more up the sleeves for the Tempelores readers. She brings her own work and is about to release a CD. I am not a bit fan of female melodic music I think, but she has a few songs that I quite enjoy. Didn’t feel like this was her best performance.

We checked out Somniac One, a Lithuanian Dj that mixes techno with industrial hardcore which is a very nice festival mix and getting all the dance feet ready. We saw just a little bit as we rushed off to Jaya the Cat. Now, when talking about a festival band I think this is definitely the one. Just such good vibes, easy tunes to move on and get your groove on. Crazy melange of punk, reggae, ska and rock. The best for a festival afternoon. The tent was packed. We were a little sad that we could not see and move along on the full set of Combichrist on the electric stage. Strobo alert and ready to destroy the dance floor! You do not like this for the amazing vocals from Andy LaPlegua but more for the old skool aggressive industrial they served us with. But we had to leave, if only we knew Plan Nine would make us wait for 15 minutes. We could have stayed a bit longer. For me Plan Nine didn’t do it. I have a thing, or more, a dislike for green and red lights at the same time unless it is Christmas. They played some good southern rock and showed us that they are skilled musicians.

Somniac One

Charlotte Wessels

Combichrist

Plan Nine

If you planned on eating something at this time you were very unlucky. This is the only negative thing to be said about this festival (and maybe the price for a locker). The queues in front of the food stalls. I have been told some have been waiting over 40 minutes. I decided to just not even try it and have been told that a beer is two brown slices of bread. Luckily I had a big fries around 4-ish. But time to boggle my mind about the next clash on the time-table. The brings back good memories of old times: Ill Nino or the Eurovision song contest GO-A that make you move your feed on their folkish electronic music. Ill Nino was still building up, must have been the delay caused by the previous band but it made us rush to catch a bit of GO-A. And that was really nice. I very much like their flute and folk influences and each and everyone in the tent seem to agree with me. It was party time.

Now back to the other stage where Ill Nino started to play. We have seen this band in the past and had some expectations. But with quite some covers and a different group of people on stage they did not deliver to that expectation of the old nu-metal days, but still brought a lot of energy and a good time. We catched Ektomorf which might not need an introduction to our readers. They played a set on the Puppi’s Playground stage. Lovely for all those trash loving metalheads. They attracted quite the crowd and set off a great set and blasted through their songs.

GO-A

Ill Nino

Ektomorf

The darkness had set and it was time for some Celtic metal from Primordial. I love this band with their unique sound. Waving Irish Celtic History in their songs they take you on a journey. Their front man has some charismatic-ness over him which he mixes with his passionate vocals. Compelling you to keep watching, he draws you in and does not let go. Before you know it is over. They are one of those bands that I believe you have to see live to really feel their atmosphere.

We went straight to one of the smaller stages to see the Dutch No Turning Back. I don’t know but these guys go back as long as I can remember and they deserve a much larger stage. But one thing is for sure even after all those years they build their own party no matter where you put them. They showed us they still got it. Tempelores Sabine remembers she saw them play at the first edition of Baroeg Open Air. If you like to know more you can listen to us talking about this festival and bands on the podcast, episode 17.

Primordial

No Turning Back

There will always be a time for the last band, well the last we catched. As I am pretty sure Black Sun Empire was building a party on the electronic stage. The Dutch Dool had the honor to close off the main stage. So fun to hear Raven, the vocalist, talk in Dutch to the audience in her no bullshit, recht voor je raap – way. So many people love that. Their music is not that ‘recht voor je raap’. It is more complex. It’s dark and melancholic but accompanied by great guitar riffs. Well I think they might even put more southern rock passion in their riffs than Plan Nine. They nailed it. The atmosphere was right, although I can imagine this even better in a dark venue. With that we came to the end of this years Baroeg Open Air. We left a little before all the people would storm off.

Great festival day, great festival with a very nice vibe. If you are around next year, make sure you visit it. Whether you like electronic music, metal or rock or everything. This is just one of those festivals that you can enjoy, just by being there. It’s the atmosphere, all the volunteers that make this possible (there are many of them) and the feeling of one big happy family no matter what style of music you like. You will have a good time.