News

Just across the street from the Koepelhal venues is the NS16 which this year will be hosting exhibitions from our official festival artist, David Fitt, as well as his fellow French creatives, Fortifem.  This little oasis of creativity will highlight exactly why David’s work caught our eye and why he has been a go-to collaborator for an ever growing number of musicians (including Dool, and Grave Pleasures to name just two out of the more than a hundred he’s worked with). His emotional and feelings-first approach to photography and filmmaking makes his distinctive style really stand out.

Of his participation in Roadburn 2024, he says the following: “Being asked to create the visual artwork of this year’s edition is like receiving a stamp  of approval to what I’ve been doing over the last decade. Roadburn has always been a festival I looked up to for the exigence of its lineup & curation. Therefore, I’m planning to have the biggest showcase of my work to date, including screenings of my videos & photo exhibitions. How I feel right now is beyond excitement.”

The exhibition is titled Empty Hamptons and shows the vulnerable side of its creator. Shot in early 2022 in the Hamptons, Long Island, the images give a confronting and sometimes bleak look into David’s emotional state at the time.  For the first time, David himself was the focal point of his work, creating an autobiographical collection of images that centre on the theme of healing.

David’s video work for Roadburn this year featured two familiar faces – those of Adrien and Jesse aka Fortifem.  The pair will offer up their own exhibit at the NS16 during Roadburn, showcasing their own distinctive talents. Their style draws as much from the strength of tattoo lines as from the meticulousness of old engravings, always trying to shine a warm light into the darkest ink. 

As they explain:
“We’ve always been amazed by Roadburn’s power to gather and elevate hearts through its always-evolving yet always-on-point curation. We’ve seen many dear friends deeply moved by the festival, whether experiencing it from the crowd or from the stage. The unexpected inclusion of the two of us as David Fitt’s models on the poster announcement has led to an invitation to showcase a decade of our work as artists. It’s our first Roadburn, and we are humbled, incredibly grateful, and still can’t quite believe it.  We hope you find in our creations some fond memories or echoes of the bands that have accompanied you, as they have for us.”

Please join us to officially open the NS16 exhibitions at 1pm on Thursday, 18 Apri

As always, Roadburn shows the works of talented visual artists throughout the festival site. The thrilling exhibition “Where Shadows Grow” by Nona Limmen will be hung throughout the 013 venue, highlighting her dreamlike and thought-provoking images that explore ideas of mythology, symbolism, the occult, psychology, and shadow work.

Nona tells us:

‘’An homage to the twilight hour, a time of growing darkness where shadows slowly cover what once was a bright world. In the dark, everything is as your mind makes it. Anything could be on the other side, but don’t worry, you won’t get lost in this dark.

” This exhibition explores how nostalgia, the collective unconscious and dark escapism can faultlessly entangle with each other, to create an immersive journey that projects precisely that. These themes drive my work. They represent the hidden elements of human nature, the unconscious parts of our personality we all carry with us but try to actively keep in check. All artworks showcased at Roadburn will serve as an invitation to connect with that macabre feature that lurks within all of us.’’

For the third year in a row, we’ve teamed up with Paradox Tilburg to bring you two days of experimental and avant-garde music in the intimate setting of this special, world-renowned jazz club. We’re thrilled to welcome to the line-up:

Deepsky
Drone Assembly
Echoes of Zoo
Hedvig Mollestad Trio
NI
OTTLA
Raw Fish’s Heavy Zazz Jam

Dive into all these performances at roadburn.com

Stay tuned for news on art exhibitions, the side programme – and yes, the time schedules – in the coming weeks. Tickets and info can be found over at Roadburn.com

Roadburn has today announced the final names for the main musical programme of the 2024 edition of the festival. The festival’s side programme, art exhibitions and Paradox jazz club artists are still to be announced for the festival, which will take place between 18-21 April in Tilburg, The Netherlands. 

Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers, comments:
The line-up for Roadburn 2024 is finally complete. We are immensely proud of the diverse array of artists that we have gathered, and we feel that we are channeling past, present and future artistically, musically and spiritually. We can’t wait to explore and discover everything that is in store and celebrate our beloved underground together with all of you.

• Brigid Mae Power will deliver alchemical incantations and dreamy folk-pop melodies.
• Channeling intensity and vulnerability, deathcrash’s slowcore will be a welcome addition.
• Fear Falls Burning will premiere new music in the form of their new album, The Principle Flaw. 
• Gros Coeur are set to bring a psychedelic rainbow of sound to Roadburn.
• With a new album on the way, Habitants will make their Roadburn debut this year.
• Den Haag’s Heath promise “odd time signatures, blazing harmonica and hypnotic guitars” and more!
• HIDE will bring their uncompromising live performance to Roadburn for the first time.
• Fresh from the success of her latest release, Acts of Light, Hilary Woods will perform at Roadburn 2024.
• Bringing a heady blend of industrial noise, hip hop to Roadburn is King Yosef. 
• Lord Spikeheart will make his Roadburn debut as a solo artist, performing music from his brand new album.
• Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys have been highly praised for their live show which will make its way to Roadburn this April.
• Tilburg’s own Mirusi Mergina will present an experimental mix of whispers and soundscapes.
• Neptunian Maximalism will present their ambitious and expansive new album Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu. 
• Having previously performed at Roadburn with his band, Tau and the Drones of Praise, Seán Mulrooney will return for a solo performance.
• The Infinity Ring will head to Europe for the first time and perform at Roadburn 2024.
• Throwing Bricks seek to find joy in heaviness and combine elements of punk, black metal, screamo and sludge.

The Spark, Roadburn’s Wednesday night pre-festival party, was recently announced featuring performances from Final Gasp, Sonja, and Riot City.

The above artists join a line-up that includes The Jesus And Mary Chain, Khanate, Chelsea Wolfe, Lankum, Clipping., Blood Incantation, Health, Royal Thunder, Hexvessel, Dool, Inter Arma, Agriculture, Fluisteraars, and many, many more. More artists will be announced in the coming weeks. For all information including tickets, please visit www.roadburn.com

As has become tradition, we will kick off proceedings for Roadburn with The Spark – a free pre-party at the 013 on the Wednesday night!

You can meet up with friends, both old and new, get your bearings and truly start to get excited about the next four days of festivities, whilst being kept company by the unrivalled talents of Riot City, Sonja and Final Gasp.

These three bands will be your welcoming committee, a taste of what’s to come, and the beginning of – in our opinion – the most exciting weekend of the year.

We’re beyond excited to announce the third commissioned project for the 2024 edition of the festival. Berlin-based Die Wilde Jagd will join forces with the Dutch Metropole Orkest to present a project titled Lux Tenera – A Rite To Joy on the Main Stage on Sunday, April 21. The commissioned project, which is 2 years in the making, is envisioned as a collective encounter, in which the listener becomes part of a pulsating entity – a meditation, which expands our physical coexistence with new sensory experiences.

Die Wilde Jagd – the creative outlet for progressive musician Sebastian Lee Philipp – will likely be a familiar name to Roadburners. The band performed at Roadburn 2022, and prior to that they beamed into homes around the globe as part of Roadburn Redux where they performed two sets, one of which, Atem, was also a commissioned project. Sebastian’s tenacity for composition and his forward looking approach to psychedelic music has kept him firmly on Roadburn’s radar.

Meanwhile, the Metropole Orkest is internationally recognised for their work with the likes of Brian Eno, Antony and the Johnsons and more, but they will always hold a special place in the hearts of those who attended Roadburn 2019, when they performed alongside Triptykon. Their collaborative performance was the spectacular final piece of the puzzle for Tom G. Warrior as he worked to complete Celtic Frost’s Requiem trilogy.  With assistance from Fonds Podiumkunsten yet another groundbreaking commissioned project will be added to Roadburn’s history books.

Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers, comments: “Sebastian has proved to be one of the most exciting and forward thinking musicians exploring psych music. By teaming up with the Metropole Orkest, Sebastian will push the envelope of modern psych even further – we expect a mind-altering composition perfect for traveling both inward and outward; something you will feel in every fibre of your body.”

Sebastian comments:
“Since entrusting me with the creation of Atem for the 2021 Redux Edition of Roadburn, Walter Hoeijmakers has consistently presented me with truly exceptional projects, fostering an environment that encourages me to delve deeper into my artistic expressions. The prospect of collaborating with the globally acclaimed Metropole Orkest, and witnessing the collective power of 50 musicians bringing my new composition to life, is an extraordinary honour that surpasses even my wildest aspirations. I am profoundly humbled by this opportunity and eagerly anticipate the moment when I can share Lux Tenera with the orchestra during our performance on April 21st.”

To read more about Lux Tenera, please click here.

The commissioned projects already announced for Roadburn 2024 are Mat McNerney presenting Music for Gloaming: A Nocturne by the Hexvessel Folk Assembly and Kavus Torabi presenting Lion of The Lord’s Elect. Elsewhere the Roadburn 2024 line up features The Jesus and Mary Chain, Chelsea Wolfe, Lankum, Khanate, Clipping, Blood Incantation and many more.

We have every hope that this announcement is a case of third time lucky for us and for White Ward. Originally scheduled to play in 2020, we then re-booked them for 2023 with the intention of presenting their incredible album False Light in its entirety. That show was then cancelled due to the ongoing war in Ukraine; the band were understandably unable to leave their homeland for performances. So, it is with renewed hope and plenty of enthusiastic anticipation that we’re preparing once again to welcome White Ward to Roadburn 2024. 

As one of the leading lights in experimental and avant-garde metal, White Ward truly captured imaginations with the release of 2019’s Love Exchange Failure. It is a critically acclaimed patient exploration of black metal with exquisite jazz-infused flourishes that secured their booking at Roadburn the following year. They followed this with the release of False Light in 2022 – a thematically bleak album inspired by the novel Intermezzo written by Ukrainian author Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky.  Once again, the band seamlessly blended their signature black metal with an experimental leaning that sets them apart. 

Of their upcoming appearance at Roadburn, the band comments:
“Since we cancelled our spring tour and despite all the happening around we decided not to give up and continue to look for a solution for foreign concerts, as we understand how important it is not only for us but also for the Ukrainian underground scene and cultural ties with the European community. And now, after many months, we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

“Hope to finally see you in Tilburg, at Roadburn 2024!”

The road to Roadburn has not been a smooth one for White Ward, but we’re looking forward to finally hosting them for what is sure to be a monumental and incredibly special performance.

Wiegedood have performed at Roadburn twice before – their latest show in 2022 being an awe-inspiring performance of that year’s There’s Always Blood At The End Of The Road album. We’re no strangers to their high voltage black metal and their electrifying sets are always something to cherish. We’ve invited them back to Roadburn for 2024, but this is not Wiegedood as you’ve seen them at Roadburn before. For this very special performance, originally commissioned by VierNulVier arts centre / Film festival Ghent, they will be performing their soundtrack to the silent Japanese horror film, A Page of Madness. Prepare for something completely different… This performance will open the main stage on Thursday – the perfect location for Wiegedood to set the tone for what will be a varied and experimental edition of Roadburn.