Riverside confirmed for Midsummer Prog Festival 2018

Riverside
Riverside

Riverside have become the first band announced for the 2018 edition of the Midsummer Prog Festival.

The event will take place at the outdoor Openluchttheater in Valkenburg, Netherlands, on June 23 next year.

This year’s inaugural festival saw artists including Anathema, Gazpacho, Pain Of Salvation, Iamthemorning and Caligula’s Horse play the 800-capacity venue.

And organiser Rob Palmen reports that he’s confident the 2018 event will be even better than this year’s sold-out celebration of prog.

He says: “Being on both sides of the fence – music lover since I was a kid and visitor of many shows since 1978 – and being backstage with my bands on countless shows since 2000, I have come to understand what the audience likes and what bands like.

“It is also my philosophy of my company Glassville Music to look at all things from as many angles as possible.

“So within the boundaries of what we had, we did our best to create a good festival for the audience and the bands with things like good food and drink, great sound, clean toilets and friendly staff and security.

“I say ‘we’ because I also really don’t like to take all credit. I triggered everything but it was a big team effort. We also have a list of things to improve, so I am confident it will even be better next year.”

Palmen adds: “People had a great day and they just trust us to come up with good lineup. With the way it is going, we think it will sell out before the end of the year.”

Tickets for the Midsummer Prog Festival 2018 are now available, while further artists will be revealed in due course.

Riverside, meanwhile, are about to embark on a run of festival dates and their Towards The Blue Horizon Tour which will kick off with a set at the ARTmania Festival in Sibiu, Romania, on July 28.

Mariusz Duda says: “The aim of the Towards The Blue Horizon Tour is to prove that Riverside, in spite of the earthquake of February 2016, have got back to their feet and have been reborn stronger than ever.

“We are really glad that after the extremely successful April leg in Poland and May leg in the Western Europe, we will be able to play the September leg in Scandinavia.

“We know that our fans in Sweden, Norway and Finland have been waiting for us for a long time. We’re also going to play in Denmark for the first time. These will be incredibly emotional and unforgettable evenings. We look forward to seeing you all there!”

Find a list of their tour dates below.

Riverside 2017⁄2018 tour dates

Jul 28: Sibiu ARTmania Festival, Romania
Aug 12: Ulft Huntenpop Festival, Netherlands
Aug 19: Cieszanow Rock festival, Poland
Aug 20: Warsaw park Sowinskiego, Poland
Sep 01: Wroclaw wROCK For Freedom, Poland
Sep 02: Szczeinek MateriaFest, Poland
Sep 20: Szczecin Slowianin, Poland
Sep 22: Copenhagen Vega, Denmark
Sep 23: Cothenburg Sticky Fingers, Sweden
Sep 24: Oslo John Dee, Norway
Sep 25: Stockholm Bryggarsalen, Sweden
Sep 27: Jyvaskyla Lutakko, Finland
Sep 28: Joensuu Kerubi, Finland
Sep 29: Tampere Klubi, Finland
Sep 30: Helsinki Tavastia, Finland
Oct 01: Tallinn Tapper, Estonia
Oct 03: Bialystok Zmiana Klimatu, Poland
Jun 23: Valkenburg Midsummer Prog Festival 2018

Riverside on life, death and the Eye Of The Soundscape

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.