Just a few more days before the Ieper Hardcore Festival starts. To learn some more about what the festival is all about and to get to know who are setting those 3 days of utopia up year after year we decided to interview Bruno Vandevyvere: Ieperfest booking and communication responsible.
Ieperfest celebrates its 20th birthday and grew out to be one of the biggest hardcore festivals in Europe. Can you tell where it all began?
The festival started back in 1992 at the Vort’n Vis club and has become the world’s longest running underground hardcore festival. Some of the bands that played the first 2-day edition were ABOLITION (DE), BLINDFOLD (BE), IRONSIDE (UK), FEEDING THE FIRE (NL), NATIONS ON FIRE (NL/FR), NO MORE (LU), SHORTSIGHT (BE), SPIRIT OF YOUTH (BE) etc. Ieperfest is organised by 2 Belgian, not-for-profit DIY collectives sharing the same geographical & ideological roots: Republyk Vort’n Vis & Genet records.
These days Ieperfest is an independent 3-day Hardcore household name that wants to offer a stage to an international variety of underground bands. On top of that we also focus on keeping the festival as ecological as possible. We have been offering vegan food only since the very start and there’s a huge More Than Music tent with room for debate and NGO stands.
What is for you personally the biggest highlight of all Ieperfest editions?
Surprisingly perhaps, the biggest highlight is not any of the multiple fantastic bands we have booked over the years. The fact that we made so many great friends during these 20 editions, some of them we never would have met if it wasn’t for the fest, is way more important to me. Some of them we see back year after year, some we just see occasionally and some of them we will never meet again but we are happy to have gotten to know them at a certain point!
Which bands would you like to book that you have never been able to have booked before?
There’s a bunch of bands that never played the festival before and that we surely want to book some day: AS I LAY DYING, BOYSETSFIRE, CAVE IN, CRO-MAGS, CULT OF LUNA, DEATH THREAT, DRI, GOOD RIDDANCE, HATEBREED, HIGH ON FIRE, JOB FOR A COWBOY, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, LAMB OF GOD, NEUROSIS, RINGWORM, SLAPSHOT, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, SUICIDE SILENCE … to name just a few. These are some of the bigger bands, but there are also a great deal of really superb smaller bands that we want to book sooner or later.
Have you taken care of particular preparations related to what happened with the storm last year at the Pukkelpop festival?
Yes, obviously. Even if we were pretty well prepared the last few years already, we added more safety measures for this edition. All was carefully planned under supervision of the local authorities and fire department. We are prepared for the worst, but hope the festival will take place in the best possible conditions. Actually, the weather forecasts for the weekend look pretty promising!
Everything eatable at the festival is vegan. How did you come up with the idea to make Ieperfest vegan?Ieperfest has been offering 100% vegan food since the very start in 1992. Some of us are vegans and we think it’s a great compassionate, healthy and environmentally friendly way of living. Ieperfest has been trying to spread this message since the beginning. 20 years later we still take a strong stance, promoting our views any way we can. For more info check the “Why vegan” part on the food page on the website. (http://www.ieperfest.com/2012/food)
How do you see the future of Ieperfest?
That’s a tricky one. We hope to continue the way we have been organising the festival so far. Growing a bit year after year, offering a great mix of all sorts of bands and not selling out on our ideals! On the contrary, there’s still room for improvement for the green policy and MTM stage. We want to work on that for sure!
Which bands would you like to book that you have never been able to have booked before?
There’s a bunch of bands that never played the festival before and that we surely want to book some day: AS I LAY DYING, BOYSETSFIRE, CAVE IN, CRO-MAGS, CULT OF LUNA, DEATH THREAT, DRI, GOOD RIDDANCE, HATEBREED, HIGH ON FIRE, JOB FOR A COWBOY, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, LAMB OF GOD, NEUROSIS, RINGWORM, SLAPSHOT, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, SUICIDE SILENCE … to name just a few. These are some of the bigger bands, but there are also a great deal of really superb smaller bands that we want to book sooner or later.
Have you taken care of particular preparations related to what happened with the storm last year at the Pukkelpop festival?
Yes, obviously. Even if we were pretty well prepared the last few years already, we added more safety measures for this edition. All was carefully planned under supervision of the local authorities and fire department. We are prepared for the worst, but hope the festival will take place in the best possible conditions. Actually, the weather forecasts for the weekend look pretty promising!
Everything eatable at the festival is vegan. How did you come up with the idea to make Ieperfest vegan?Ieperfest has been offering 100% vegan food since the very start in 1992. Some of us are vegans and we think it’s a great compassionate, healthy and environmentally friendly way of living. Ieperfest has been trying to spread this message since the beginning. 20 years later we still take a strong stance, promoting our views any way we can. For more info check the “Why vegan” part on the food page on the website. (http://www.ieperfest.com/2012/food)
How do you see the future of Ieperfest?
That’s a tricky one. We hope to continue the way we have been organising the festival so far. Growing a bit year after year, offering a great mix of all sorts of bands and not selling out on our ideals! On the contrary, there’s still room for improvement for the green policy and MTM stage. We want to work on that for sure!
For more info: http://www.ieperfest.com
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