Citymagazine 062013

musiques actuelles

Rock-a-Field

The great outdoors

The Script – trendy middle-class appeal The Script – le charme bourgeois à la mode

The annual festival run by den Atelier is now firmly established on the European circuit and attracts some top billing names.

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n just seven years Rock-A-Field has grown from a one day festival with little more than a handful of bands to a full-blown two-day event with a camp site, two stages and a Chillax tent and a line-up featuring 37 acts. It is a major undertaking for organisers, den Atelier. “The amount of work that goes into this single event is comparable to the amount we have with den Atelier over the year,” says Patrick Bartz, co-founder of the venue that promotes the festival. “But it is complementary to the venue, because many bands that play at den Atelier later play at RockA-Field, or the other way around – acts that perform well at the festival later come back to Luxembourg, such as Mumford & Sons.”

TEXTES Duncan Roberts

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JUNI ’13 CITY Agenda LUXEMBOURG

This year’s Rock-A-Field line-up is as eclectic as ever with hip “indie” names such as Jake Bugg, Band of Horses and Tame Impala sitting alongside trendy middle-class appeal acts such as Of Monsters and Men and The Script. Headliners on the two-day programme are American alt-rockers Queens of the Stone Age – returning to the festival following an acclaimed performance in 2007 – and French electro-dance outfit Phoenix, who have twice played den Atelier but are now a bona-fide festival act.

Other international artists include many returning to Luxembourg after playing to a rapturous welcome. London indie faves Bloc Party, for instance, were a big hit at their show at den Atelier in 2007, UK rapper Example performed to a sell-out crown in the rue de Hollerich venue just last year, Danish rockers Volbeat played the 2011 RAF festival and a follow-up show at den Atelier in November of that year, and acts from Germany including energetic indie-rap band Kraftklub and hugely popular hip-hop collective Seeed (whose Peter Fox almost stole the show at the 2007 festival).

Local acts are important for the festival and among the Luxembourg bands on this year’s bill are Toxkäpp, Monophona, Mother Heroine, De Läb and Seed to Tree – some of whom will play on one of the main stages and others in the Chillax tent. The festival is truly a fun weekend for local youths and visitors who can now camp near the festival grounds.

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