Horst Arts & Music Festival is gearing up for its 11th edition at Asiat Park, Vilvoorde in Belgium, announcing the full line-up for the festival’s 11th year on February 4. On 1, 2 and 3 May, the festival will open its doors to festival-goers in search of the hidden depths of electronic music culture, with no fewer than 115 unique artists on the bill.
Unseen new and older
The most striking name on the roster of Horst Arts & Music 2025 is undoubtedly the already cryptically announced Four Tet. The man of a thousand alter egos is coming to Vilvoorde on Thursday May 1 for an exclusive Belgian show. ‘Horst has always started from a broad spectrum of variations on house and techno, but also laced with all things bass & breaks. Four Tet is someone who honours those traditions, and includes 10 more within the blink of an eye. That’s when you know it will work at Horst,’ says Simon Nowak, music programmer for Horst Arts & Music.
Beyond the headliner status, Horst is once again recalibrating its musical antennae, feeding the line-up with international trendsetters. ‘In an environment where everything has to be harder, faster and instagrammable, we resolutely, more than ever, want to bring challenging, content-rich music back to the forefront – we believe Horst audiences like to be challenged. The line-up is more than ever a combination of cutting-edge producers, musicians and innovative DJs.’ That means 2025 will look at the sounds of club culture that reign supreme on a global level, but still too often slip under the radar closer to home. Acts like Makadsi highlight what a crossover can sound like between Arab and North American music culture, BADSISTA and Verraco show what South American countries like Brazil and Colombia have to offer, and gyrofield inventively tackles electronic IDM heritage from Hong Kong.
And that’s by no means all. DVS1 curates the new Horst stage on Friday, bringing along veteran dub techno collective Generations in Sync (DJ Pete, Erik Jabari, Moritz von Oswald), while Horst regular Job Jobse returns to Vilvoorde to provide the sunset with a fitting soundtrack. Furthermore, Horst once again includes a string of unreleased back-to-backs on the programme, including electro house legend Erol Alkan who joins forces with Palms Trax, Polygonia and Steffi, iconic London duo Hannah Holland and Josh Caffé, longtime Horst resident AliA and rising star Mia Koden, while Detroit legend DJ Stingray 313 and German electro powerhouse Helena Hauff unite their cold and warmer tunes on the dance floor.
In addition, American DJ Zak Khutoretsky – aka DVS1 – is collaborating with star architect and friend of the festival Leopold Banchini on a revolutionary project that will be unveiled later in the run-up to the festival.
A new chapter, a new territory
With Horst Arts & Music’s 10th anniversary behind us, the organisation is entering new territory. Something you can take quite literally. Where plans were on the table to cross over to the Darse site across the water in 2025, the ambition had to simmer a little longer. Additional challenges around the licensing framework and preparation of the site did not allow it to welcome Horst visitors. Regarding this change of course, Horst Arts & Music posted this statement on their channels.
‘With the temporary suspension of the bridge, we were forced to look creatively at our current space. And the necessary questions that come with redirecting your course. In what way do we want to grow as a festival? It always led us back to a sustainable and step-by-step growth, to not trip during the process,’ says Jochem Daelman, organiser of Horst Arts & Music. ‘When it became clear that the bridge would not be there this year, we didn’t sit back. Doing the same thing twice is not in our DNA. So we started looking for another place that could naturally enrich Horst’s landscape. And that’s what we eventually found, closer than we could ever dream of. ‘The search has become the theme of this edition: challenges that offer opportunities. What that will look like, is for the visitors to discover.’
(Inter)national Collaborations
In customary Horst fashion, space will once again be etched out for a series of in-depth (international) collaborations with the likes of Kiosk Radio, who will once again host Moon Ra together with The Lot Radio – the New York-based project of Belgian François Vaxelaire. The intimate hut will be the setting for the live-streamed sets of a wide range of exciting local acts such as Erykah, Otis, Elisethere and Emily Jeanne as well as international heavyweights. Nightlife platform Resident Advisor joins once again. They are taking care of this year’s Vesshcell, which will have a new look for the occasion and transforms itself from a hub for iconic pop edits to a discovery sanctuary for (live) niche acts from the undercurrent with Mark Knekelhuis and Parris Smith’s project, Volition Immanent, among others. As usual, FOR ALL QUEENS! also returns, this year with a 7-hour performance at the infamous Soleil Rouge.
Details of the arts and architecture programme will be revealed in the coming weeks. Further info and remaining tickets are available via www.horstartsandmusic.com.
