Rock Werchter’s Covid-safe Summer Bar attracts 15,000

Over the past three weeks, the Rock Werchter team has welcomed over 15,000 guests to its Live2020 Summer Bar, an open-air entertainment space raising money for the Belgian live industry.

The Summer Bar was in place from 2 to 26 July at the Festivalpark in Werchter, Belgium, hosting 36 concerts, two comedy performances and one live TV show.

The Rock Werchter team is wrapping up its Summer Bar as the Belgian government announces it is lowering the maximum capacity limits at events – from 400 to 200 for open-air shows and 200 to 100 for indoor events – instead of doubling them, as was previously planned for August, due to a recent spike in infection rates.

Almost 40 local clubs and associations worked in collaboration with the Rock Werchter team, with approximately 1,300 volunteers overseeing operations at the Summer Bar site over the period.

The initiative also offered respite for performers and crews, production staff, audio, light and video technicians, agents, caterers and event security, with all proceeds from Rock Werchter merchandise sales and the Summer Bar also being donated to the Belgian live music sector’s solidarity fund, Live2020, which supports those who are struggling financially.

“Being able to enjoy live music again was an absolute delight in these strange times”

“We would like to thank everyone who was a part of the Rock Werchter Summer Bar (Zomerbar), these past couple of weeks,” reads a post by the Rock Werchter team. “Our amazing crew, hard-working volunteers, artists, staff and of course some 15,000 fans who attended one or more of the 36 live concerts and 2 comedy nights! Being able to enjoy live music again was an absolute delight in these strange times.”

Although the team states the Summer Bar was “most definitely a success”, they add that is is “not a viable model” for the future and was only possible through the help of sponsors and suppliers, support of the local authority and efforts of volunteers.

Live Nation-owned Rock Werchter, one among many major Belgium festivals to be called off due to a summer-long large event ban, is returning from 1 to 4 July 2021, with already confirmed acts including Pearl Jam, Gorillaz, Twenty One Pilots, the Lumineers, Thom Yorke Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, the Streets, Cigarettes After Sex and Miles Kane, and more names to be added soon.

Tickets for Rock Werchter 2021 are available here, priced at €243 for a four-day combi ticket and €110 for a day ticket.

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