‘Nouter Club @ Festival Dranouter

FRIDAY 7/08

The musical world created by ‘Nouter Club 2026 resident Sander Boury can’t be pinned down to a single genre, style or even mood. It unfolds like a film: layered, evocative and soaked in soul. Together with drummer Jonathan Frederix (Heisa), and carried by subtle visuals, he takes the audience on an emotional trip that moves from hushed intimacy to blistering intensity.

Head on Stone is the solo project of Nele Janssen (frontwoman of rock band Peuk), in which she reveals a completely different side of herself. With nothing but her voice and a piano, she opens up a deeply personal world that feels vulnerable and powerful at once. Her songs are imaginative and sincere, sad and hopeful, virtuosic and wilful. Music that doesn’t try to impress, but simply cuts straight to the heart!

What starts as a timid guitar note soon explodes into a world of raw emotion and poetic sharpness. Junior Brother, alias Ronan Kealy, weaves an intriguing soundscape into his songs that feels traditional and new at the same time. His voice is a knife cutting through melody and silence. Every song is a story that keeps echoing. As The Guardian aptly put it: his songs are “wrenching tales full of fear and frustration” – unforgettable and deeply piercing. Junior Brother is one of the bands featured in Focus Ireland.

Thalas is the new duo of Guus Herremans and Ward Dhoore, two familiar names from the Belgian (bal)folk circuit who, after years of working together, join forces in one clear story.
With their debut album As It Comes they bring music that grows out of patience, trust and a deep artistic connection, earning them the 2026 Flanders Folk Award for Best Album. Thalas invites you: to listen, to feel, to dance and to let yourself be carried away by music that comes straight from the heart.

SATURDAY 8/08

Dé Academie Ieper has become a fixture on the festival programme. Guided by their teachers, the young musicians from the music academy’s world and folk department serve up a colourful selection of well-known and lesser-known trad tunes. What you hear is the future of folk: diverse, fresh and above all full of the joy of playing.

After Alabadine (2024), bvba Vandamme returns this year with Waterlanders, a second album full of acoustic arrangements and relatable lyrics in West Flemish. This time the sea is its beating heart: music that moves with the ebb and flow, between melancholy and lightness. With Sam Vandamme and his trusted companions, a warm blend of chanson and playful Flemish folk emerges, intimate and captivating at once.

Uma Chine from Ghent balances effortlessly between roots and electronics, between the human and the mechanical. Their joy of playing leaps off the stage, carried by frontwoman Nele De Gussem and the sultry, dreamy voices of Rana and Sherien Holail Mohamed. Together they weave an enchanting tapestry of sound full of rich harmonies and unexpected twists. In their idiosyncratic universe, extremes flow seamlessly together and the songs move between the accessible and the elusive.

Dublin-based The Deadlians are the alternative folk band you didn’t know you needed. Thundering drums, hypnotic synths, evocative guitars and poetic vocals bring to mind IDLES or Fontaines DC. Since starting out in 2017, the band has carved out its own place in the alt-folk scene. Their cult following already knows this band is phenomenal – and anyone who sees them live instantly understands why. One of Ireland’s best-kept secrets. The Deadlians is one of the bands featured in Focus Ireland.

Cardboard Cabin invites you into their imaginary cabin, where warm, danceable folk shifts effortlessly between intimacy and exuberant powerfolk. With their own songs they balance between classic bal dances and playful experimentation. Drums and bass deliver a groovy sound with body, while the melodic lines of sax and accordion invite you to move. Dance, dance, dance!

SUNDAY 9/08

Guitarist Gilles Demolder, known from post-metal bands like Oathbreaker and Wiegedood, uses Siem Reap to process his everyday thoughts and frustrations, as a way of coping with masculinity, alcoholism, family and relationships. But don’t be fooled by the man’s musical CV. What Siem Reap shares with those bands above all is a profound intensity. Stripped-down songs with gentle melodies, wrapped in thick layers of atmospheric soundscapes.

Since being selected as a Sound Track 2023 laureate, Emma Hessels has been winning hearts across the country, show after show. Armed with nothing more than her voice and guitar, she balances effortlessly over the deepest chasms of longing, love and loneliness. Her presence is fragile and powerful at the same time. In short: too beautiful to ignore!

From Dublin, Zoé Basha melts Irish tradition, ragtime and Appalachian folk into a playful, irresistible sound. Her guitar, fiddle, organ and drums spin a whirlwind around her powerful voice. More than a musician, Zoé Basha is a feminist force, an artist who defies convention. Songs you feel in every fibre of your body. For fans of Aldous Harding and Rhiannon Giddens. Zoé Basha is one of the bands featured in Focus Ireland.

For over 15 years, Variomatic has been shifting smoothly from contemporary folk to funky pop, or from sturdy rock towards more intimate blues. The line-up features plenty of familiar names from the Belgian folk scene: Koen Garriau (Living Roots), Guus Herremans (Airboxes/Thalas), Paul Garriau (Fluxus), Dirk Verhegge (De Garre), Koen Dewaele (Kadril), Stef Van Straelen (Yevgueni).

Festival Dranouter is a true music holiday, to be enjoyed with friends or family. Previous editions all sold out completely, drawing no fewer than 55,000 festival-goers.

On this year’s bill: The Kooks, Pommelien Thijs, ZAZ, Sylvie Kreusch, blackwave., ZAP Mama & K.ZIA, Gustave Brass Band, Talisk, Bart Peeters & De Ideale Mannen, Dressed Like Boys, Mentissa, Katherine Priddy, Thalas & more.