Every spring the small quiet town of Meerhout in Belgium is invaded by the best in punk rock and hardcore bands. It's probably not the first place you'd think of for a music festival, but the event is popular and fans travel from across Europe (sometimes further afield) to attend.
Groezrock was first held in 1992 and featured a small line up of bands with a few hundred music fans in attendance. In 2003, the event expanded to two marquees and in 2006 it grew to a two day event. Last year there was the additional third stage to give even more bands, mostly lesser known acts, a chance to perform. The festival is still small in size, but now has around 30000 attendees.
Despite the rise in popularity of the festival over the past few years, Groezrock is unique in the fact that it is still pretty DIY. There is a merch tent whereby bands man their own merch stands and you can often see the bands wandering around the festival enjoying the other acts on the bill. It's a great environment and if you ever want to attend a festival outside the UK it would definitely be my recommendation.
Groezrock 2010 is set to take place on 23rd and 24th April. And so far this year the line up includes headliners Bad Religion and Hatebreed, and also Pennywise, Sum 41, AFI, Saves the Day, Lit, Agnostic Front and The Bouncing Souls. It will bring together bands who have been around for years and relatively new acts such as Asking Alexandria and Dance Gavin Dance. If you like punk rock, you're guaranteed to enjoy at least one of the artists playing at Groezrock.
Tickets are on sale now from http://www.groezrock.be/store/tickets at a bargain price of 78 Euro for Combi Tickets (that's entry to the festival on Friday and Saturday) + 12 Euro to camp for the weekend. Make sure you buy a Combi ticket AND the camping ticket if you want to camp at the festival though; you cannot buy the camping tickets separately later on. It has got to be one of the best festivals when it comes to value for money...even with travel costs.
If you want more information about the event such as recent line up additions, photos from 2009 and 2008, tickets or just a chance to meet other people who are going to Groezrock, head over to http://www.groezrock.be. The site has all the latest news, online merch shop and a forum.
Whilst you're waiting for April to arrive you can check out what the bands are doing now and what they're looking forward to at Groezrock by reading our interviews with acts who are due to perform. So far online we have interviews with Asking Alexandria and 88 Fingers Louie. In the next few days we will be bringing you more news on the festival line up as well as an interview with ska punkers Mustard Plug so make sure you come back to pushtofire.com soon!
