Editorial DRF 2026 :
It’s not always easy to write a final editorial in such complicated times. The DRF is facing the same difficulties as its colleagues: skyrocketing headliner prices, rising VAT and service provider fees, a general economic crisis, and cuts and eliminations of subsidies… but on top of that, we were forced to leave our historic venue for administrative reasons, which generates additional infrastructure costs and logistical difficulties… But fortunately, we’ll bounce back. The open-air setting allows us to offer a larger, more bucolic site, probably with better sound, and in any case, a larger, wider, and taller main stage. The smallest of the major festivals will now be the first 100% open-air festival with camping this season!
This year’s lineup is once again massive, with Friday as festive as can be (in these gloomy times, why not party hard!): featuring parody metal superstars (in France) Ultra Vomit, making their Belgian exclusive show this spring, as well as Didier Super in their metal incarnation, our Wallifornians Baraka, and THE Belgian Rammstein tribute band in pyrotechnic form (which wouldn’t have been possible in the venue…), not forgetting the ultimate in Franco-Belgian groove metal/stoner/unclassifiable, Komah/Bukowski/Psykup, and two winners of our talent competition opening the show, Atum Nophi and This Is Not Yours.
Saturday is quite different, with a much younger lineup than in recent years and just as diverse (that’s always been the intention!), with 3 tour bus packages, resulting in 3 distinct themes: Vianova/TSS/Novelists + Ten56. For the new French metalcore scene, The Defect/Stain The Canvas/The Browning will be showcasing metalcore/electro, while League Of Distortion/Dogma/Lord Of The Lost + Tanzwut will be playing gothic/electro metal, with a fantastic exclusive performance by LOTL, their only appearance in Belgium this year. Two bands from our Wallonia-Brussels Federation complete the lineup, as our role also includes highlighting French-speaking Belgian talent: Hope As A Weapon and Black Mirrors will be there.
The entire DRF team will once again go the extra mile to ensure you have two exceptional days in this new setting. The formula that has proven successful for 30 years remains unchanged: two days and 22 Belgian, French, and international bands alternating between two stages. Diverse and high-quality food trucks, a large cashless bar near the two stages (try Le Truc aperitif! A Bomal institution!), a nice little metal market, campsites along the Ourthe River, and that legendary, friendly atmosphere of the DRF and the people of Bomal. Thank you to them, thank you to you, and here’s to a 30th edition with new coordination in May 2027. We’ll do everything to keep the DRF alive! Thanks to you!
BH
