By: Michel
19 – 21 July 2019
Lichtenvoorde, The Netherlands

When you like to spend you’re day with lots of fun, you have the chance every year again to visit the Zwarte Cross in the Netherlands.
Three days of fun and entertainment and when you’ve managed to have a spot on the festival-camping you can even add the Thursday to that.
This year The Rumjacks are the band for us, but please don’t wait until you know next years line-up. The festival is very late with band-announcements and to be honest the line-up isn’t important at all. We have to point out, the Zwarte Cross isn’t a festival as we know it, but it’s an event with lots of things.

Zwarte Cross (Black Cross) roots in an illegal motocross, the event has grown over the years in a huge event. The hardest part of visiting this event, is describing it to another person. Of course the spine of the event is the motocross. Not only on motorbikes, but with all kind of funny vehicles as well. Complete bars, ships, tanks and all other thinks you can think of, enter the circuit.
Everything you can think of. Another aspect of this event. Think of something strange and the organisation will try to implement it. Every year there are stunt, often on motorcycles in the area called ‘Ground Hero’. And everything is worked out in detail.
Where do you find a gospel-choir at a festival. Well at Zwarte Cross, and not only that, but they build a whole church for these choirs.
Blues-bands are in this southern American house. Reggae-bands? They build a whole beach with palms and everything for them. You’ll find a theater with stand-up comedians for instance, workshops… for instance for knitting.
Like something to eat something? Well there are lots of food-stands, meat, Chinese, pizza… you name ii, it’s there. Nothing special? Well they even have a wall where you get a a meal prepared by a Michelin-chef!!!

Well, when you’ve just realized there’s an awe-full lot to see. And you are in desperate need to focus yourself to just one band, you can visit one of the many stages. In the past Flogging Molly and Fiddler’s Green for instance could be seen here.

The Rumjacks

This year’s edition featured The Rumjacks. The Australian had to deal with this audience which has already bought a ticket, before they knew which band was coming.
But what an impression these Australians made on the audience. A few folk-punk-lovers were coming to the front of the stage when The Rumjacks were about to begin.

The Band ended on the fourth place in our ‘Album of the Year’ list last year with their album ‘Saints Preserve Us.’. What more reason would we need to go and see this band. In the first few songs the sound wasn’t too great and the sound-engineer was struggling to get it right. After a few songs, the flute and vocals could be heard as well, and the Australians managed to get the whole audience going. Lots of people started dancing to their music and after a few songs there was quite a mosh-pit in front of the stage as well. Considering the fact you can’t play this festival with a huge crowd of dedicated fans, The Rumjacks managed to get hundreds of people to dance and move to their music. With lots of great songs, including numerous songs of their latest album, they entertained the visitors of the ‘Megatent’ for an hour. Really a shame they had to leave the stage, but what an impression they made!