More Belgians in Worcester thanks to Corona

Rarely has there been a name as prophetic as The Regrettes: a California punk band isn’t playing on The Slope today, due to Covid-19. But don’t worry, because they will be replaced by The Haunted Youth. Their manager Tony Vandenbougherdy now calls the group “Super Super”: two weeks ago she replaced Holly Humberston at Best Kept Secret, on Saturday she replaced group in Clermont-Ferrand.

In addition to The Regrettes, the Corona virus has also brought down singer-songwriter Cleiro. The two Belgians will also take their place: Charlotte Adeguerre and Polis Popole will take their place at the club on Saturday. Singer Charles, the stage name of Charlotte Foret, has already filled in for Sam Fender this afternoon – the British rocker hasn’t faced Covid-19, but with tonsillitis. “Playing here was really one of the goals of my life,” Charles says. “When the Rock Werchter calls you, you drop everything and say yes.”

Filling the right stage can give the band a good boost. Holly Humberstone is a rising singer-songwriter, and The Haunted Youth earned a prime-time performance on Best Kept Secret. “People from Spotify and 3FM came to listen, and the latter had just announced that the single ‘Broken’ would be at the top of the station’s lap,” Vandenbogaerde says. I inspected the slope floor this afternoon. “It will fill up: There can be 3,500 people in the field, and no other shows are going on at 6:15.”

arranged in an hour

The alternative is a quick switch. Gary van der Heijn, director of Charlotte Adejere and Polis Popol, arranged their performance within an hour – from Down the Rabbit Hole in the Netherlands, where he and Sylvie Kreusch, another artist on his roster. At 2 o’clock this afternoon, we got a call regarding whether Charlotte and Polis were free; We had to confirm within half an hour.

“The performers aren’t the biggest problem: You know if they have a show or not, special dates for a concert of that level can be changed. But you have to get the crew together. There’s a staff shortage everywhere, and a lot of people work in more than one band.” I had to find a crew of three, a stylist and an extra person because we work with homemade lamps and an extra pair of festival hands come in handy to set it up. Thankfully I didn’t have to make a hundred phone calls for that.

“I got a call two days ago,” Charles says. “I immediately checked if everyone in my squad was available for Friday. Only our bass player was not free. But we were really in tune, because we also play in other festivals during this period.

“We were called on Wednesday night to cancel The Regrettes,” Vandenbogaerde says. “I was in the rehearsal room with The Haunted Youth, and we were able to quickly confirm that they were available. Then it took four hours until Thursday before we received confirmation. The festival may have polled several groups, or even more logically: maybe it was The Regrettes Still waiting for the results of the PCR test.But of course you enjoy such a concert.

In exchange for little?

Would he have sacrificed a smaller concert for that? “Oh no, you can’t do that. No serious group does that with their fans. Meskerem Mees got a chance to fill a festival, and did a little café show that day, which has already been postponed about five times because of Corona. I played that café party .

“But this is going to be the summer of the last minute show,” says van der Heijn. “With all the issues with canceled flights, and because this isn’t really over yet, I’m expecting more canceled offers and not always easy replacements.”