So, how was Meakusma 2024? The only festival where bands themselves are completely responsible if you stay in or go and experience something else. I kind of like the concept. There is always a possibility of a surprise around the corner. So, here are our most remarkable moments.
* nicest idea: Tower Of Sound: a subtle sound every 15 minutes coming out of a churchtower replacing the bells
* nicest surprise: no flags to be seen
* worst idea: bands/musicians sometimes tried to hard to fit in because of a fixed idea that Mea is an experimental festival resulting in mediocre performances. Take the word 'mediocre' not as a negative, but mediocre is not enough to stand out between dozens of colleagues. And this certainly can be said about some of the more established artists programmed. Fill in the names yourself.
* best intro: Steve Albini resurrection during Pruillip's intro.
* best 'rockband': Probably Peenoise set with their artrock touching Snakefinger/Residents in a lo-fi matter.
* smartest idea: Jesus hiding under a table in a crypt during Melos Kalpa for reasons only known to us.
* best 'band all around': Devon Rexi: a pulsating concert converging punkdisco, funk, dub and nowave. Topgig. Should have in the Halle instead of the ambient artist playing there at the same time.
* best 'concert tout court': Gaia Tones, the only band i really, really wanted to see. And boy did they deliver. A ultra balanced set buidling upwards and downwards. A trippy affair with spare, but effective beats where needed, dub where needed, and livesounds enough to keep you the full hour hyper-concentrated. Should have been given a 2 hour slot. Just a shame most of you were in church.
* best dj set: Mankiyan, loud, deep, and very hard working (indeed, working) resulting in heavy bass driven set. I'm still surprised the set just stayed high level. So much so i decided to miss out Ciccio & 2Mo's set which was apparantly very good as well. But that's exactly what Meakusma for me is about
* best vinyl dj set: Aidons Antoine, but to be honest, he really got me for like 20 minutes and then killed it (for me personally) with a wrong tune. You can't doo right for everybody
* funniest moments: basically observing the uniformed fashionista and fashionistums trying to fit into the current politicized movements
* best 'come-back': Accident Du Travail: not really a come-back but very nice to hear their evolution going upwards
* best food: that chicken bowl thing in the garden-bar. Njammies
* best beer on site: Eupener pils and Orval at the frontbar. How the fck Bavik ended up in Eupen? a Mystery
* best wine on site: the Sekt at the winebar was ok, but again completely sold out by Saturday.
* sad conclusion: 3 festivals with for sure some (not all) overlapping audiences the same weekend is maybe not such a good idea?
* happy conclusion: yep, it was tiring, fun, relaxed and still the nicest place to hang around.
* tip: more ashtrays in Heuboden:)
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