DOUR FESTIVAL

CODE: SVI_DOUR2023

Presentation of the partner:  The Dour Festival is a European festival of alternative, independent and multicultural music organized by Carlo Di Antonio, taking place every summer in Belgium at Dour, near Mons, for 5 days on the Dour wind farm, near the French border in the province of Hainaut. The festival is getting bigger and bigger and counts more and more festivalgoers coming from all over the world.More than 200 artists perform on six stages. More than anything else, it is a unique concept and a wonderful atmosphere. More than 1,000 journalists came to the festival. These professionals are usually from Europe, but every year we can note the presence of journalists from Australia, Canada, and the United States The programming is more international than ever, but we devote a large part of our programme to Belgian artists.

Volunteer work: Volunteers will be part of the GREEN BRIGADE. Your job is to keep the area clean, tidy, and safe. The team will collect and recycle the waste to give the festival-goers a nice and safe ground. Volunteers will also have to do physical work (built the stage, carry heavy material,..). Do not imagine you will simply enjoy the festival. It will be hard work too! Your job will be the same throughout the whole festival. It could be heavy and repetitive. Volunteers will have to work around 6 hours a day, probably early in the morning. During your free time, you will be free to go to the festival and enjoy the concerts (concerts start at noon and end at 5.00 am).

Accommodation
A camping site is reserved for the volunteers. It is well located, outside the festival, in a quiet environment. There is also a bar. There are showers and toilets in the camping. You need a flashlight, toilet paper, bath towel, basic pharmacy, earplugs… You can expect not to have hot water to shower. You need to bring all the things that will be useful to your stay because you will not be able to buy anything during your stay over there! You need a tent and a sleeping bag (+ camping mattress, pillow,…) and all you think you need to go camping (there is no kitchen). You need to bring your own material to fix your tent if you need to do so! There will not be any building where you can sleep. If you do not bring your own tent and camping material, you will have to sleep in the mud!

Food The organization will give volunteers 1 ticket for a sandwich and 4 tickets for drinks per day. You need to have a small budget for other meals (about 10€-15€/day). There are a lot of shops, small snacks (pizza, fries, sandwich, Chinese…) and bars in Dour. If possible, take kitchen material like a camping stove, plates, cutlery... to cook for yourself in the camping.

Specific information 

Take hiking shoes as it can be very muddy. Working clothes, warm clothes (it can be very cold sometimes and at night). You need to bring all your camping gear! (Tent, mattress, sleeping bag, etc.)

Location

* Nearest airport: Brussels South Charleroi Airport – 45 km
ƒ Zaventem Airport (Brussels Airport) – 62 km

* Nearest train station: Saint-Ghislain Station – 10 kmƒ

* Transport between the railway station and the place of volunteering: Bus 7 (25min)

Dour Festival also organizes shuttle buses. Several bus options are available from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Switzerland, and England. The bus packages all include:
- Return bus journey from the city of your choice
- The presence of a coordinator during the journey
- Entertainment during the journey

You will find all the information via this link: https://www.dourfestival.eu/fr/practical/getting-there/bybus/

Camp language The project allows you to speak either French or English. You will meet people from all over the world, so English will often be the language used. Don’t forget there will be 10 of you on the project. The group can be a support even in the comprehension of linguistic. We don’t ask for bilingual people.

About Dour

Dour is a very small town. You will not have to do anything else on site apart the festival. It is also possible to visit Mons. With a characterful medieval center climbing up a hill and the Grand Place, Mons is located 20km from Dour and had a substantial facelift in 2015. At that time, it was a European capital of culture. The legacy is full of entertaining modern museums, which make for an excellent visit and keep you busy for two or three days.One museum shows war in splendid fashion, while another celebrates the riotous Doudou festival, which stars St George, a dragon, SainteWaudru, devils and thousands of beery revelers.