Image credit: @amigoandco After yet another great performance in Germany, Linkin Park continues their summer festival tour with a headlining performance at Rock Werchter in Belgium on July 4. This marks the tenth show of the European leg, and also marks their return to the European festival circuit after a short headlining stretch that included their landmark Wembley Stadium appearance last Saturday—their largest solo show to date. Rock Werchter is the oldest-running festival on the band’s itinerary this year. Originally founded in 1974 as Torhout-Werchter—a dual-city festival split between Torhout and Werchter—the event consolidated into a single-site event in 1999 and became the four-day festival known today by 2003. With a legacy of hosting iconic rock and pop acts across decades, the event has become a pillar of Europe’s summer festival season. Linkin Park headlines the first night of the 2025 edition, which also features headliners Green Day, Sam Fender, and Olivia Rodrigo. Despite their long touring history, this will only be Linkin Park's fifth appearance in Belgium—and half those have been at Rock Werchter. The band made their Belgian debut in March 2001 as opener support for Deftones—who will actually be playing just before Linkin Park for Rock Werchter 2025—in Deinze on the Back to School tour. They played a ten-song set that opened with "With You" and included "Pushing Me Away," though not "Crawling"—a trend on that tour where only one of those two dual-guitar songs from Hybrid Theory would be played per night. Full audio recording of the band's 2001 opener performance in Deinze. A decade later, the band finally returned to Belgium for their first Rock Werchter appearance in July 2011, during the second European leg of the A Thousand Suns world tour. That night's set followed the typical structure of that era, beginning with "The Requiem" and "The Radiance" as an intro into "Papercut." Songs such as "When They Come for Me," "Iridescent," and "Numb" (featuring a piano outro that blended parts of "The Radiance" and "The Catalyst") rounded out the set. The show closed with a triple-punch of Linkin Park's three most common closers: "Bleed It Out," "Faint," and "One Step Closer." A soundboard recording of "When They Come for Me" at Rock Werchter 2011. Linkin Park followed this up immediately with extended intro "No More Sorrow," what an incredible combo! In August 2015, the band returned to Belgium again to kick off The Hunting Party's second European tour run, with a performance at Pukkelpop 2015 in Hasselt. Their set for the festival opened with "Papercut" and included tour staples such as "A Line in the Sand" and "Rebellion." The appearance of the latter marked its return as a nightly inclusion after being mostly dropped at the beginning of 2015; "Rebellion" was played for every European performance in 2015 beginning with Pukkelpop. Audience recording of "Rebellion" at Pukkelpop in 2015. Linkin Park's most recent appearance in Belgium was at Rock Werchter in 2017, during the One More Light world tour. The show holds bittersweet significance: it was the fourth-to-last show Chester Bennington played with Linkin Park, and his final festival performance. The band opened with their mashup intro of "ROADS UNTRAVELED" and "Fallout" to lead into "Talking to Myself," and featured a strong "Faint" closer. Chester also entered the crowd for performances of "Breaking the Habit," "One More Light," and "Crawling," as he often did during that section of the setlist on the One More Light tour. Linkin Park closes their last festival performance with Chester Bennington with "Faint" at Rock Werchter 2017. The band now returns to Belgium and Rock Werchter in a new era, fresh off a strong trio of headlining shows, including their sold-out appearance at London's iconic Wembley Stadium. While the setlist has remained fairly unchanged outside of rotation slots, the band's intensity and stage presence has only continued to grow. Their most recent performance in Düsseldorf featured "Cut the Bridge" once again, a move that is beginning to show the staying power it has acquired in their live repertoire. Audience recording of "Cut the Bridge" live in Düsseldorf. You can hear the crowd chanting along with Mike during the chorus! Fan hopes for "Keys to the Kingdom" might be waning at this point, as it hasn't appeared since May 1 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "IGYEIH," however, may have taken its place in the rotation. The last time "IGYEIH" was played was in Arnhem, the only time on this summer Europe run so far. Since it appears that the "heavy" rotation slot is being cut for festival sets, this is unsurprising; it's likely the song will return during the next solo headlining dates. Recording of "IGYEIH" live in Arnhem, released by Linkin Park Live. Mike Shinoda has also continued to swap in different solo verses for his mashup set. Düsseldorf featured the first repeat verse since Mike began the trend, with Mike performing the first verse of "Petrified" from The Rising Tied. That marks the first break from the unique-verse streak that began in Austin, Texas, in April. Whether this signals a shift or was just a momentary callback remains to be seen. The most talked-about moment from Düsseldorf, however, has been Emily Armstrong's nod to the "Toothpaste, caught in the Lidl" misheard lyric meme, referencing "Two Faced." After "CASTLE OF GLASS," Emily changed outfits, coming out in a full Lidl-branded tracksuit to perform "Two Faced" to embrace the fan-created meme. Just another example of how much fun the band seems to be having in this new chapter! Emily performs "Two Faced" in Düsseldorf, complete with her Lidl outfit. While audio isn't the best, this video has a great view! A second view of "Two Faced," with more of the banter onstage before the song begins. Rock Werchter can expect to see the band's festival format, with a slightly shortened setlist. "New Divide" seems likely to be dropped again, along with the two mid-set rotation slots. There's a chance the band may substitute "A Place for My Head" for "Let You Fade" again, as they did for Hellfest. "From the Inside" is another possibility, having only appeared at Rock for People and Hellfest thus far this tour leg. With livestreaming becoming more accessible than ever, fans at home have been able to watch shows on social media via YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram livestreams from attendees. While we are not asking our readers to livestream the show, if anyone reading this finds a stream or is streaming it themselves, let us know so we can watch along with you! Will you be attending Rock Werchter and seeing the band? If you are, be sure to visit our official LPA Meetup Thread. Come join the discussion on our forums as we follow the band on these last few shows in Europe! Upcoming Shows: July 05, 2025: Gdynia, Poland | Open'er Festival July 08, 2025: Frankfurt, Germany July 09, 2025: Frankfurt, Germany July 11, 2025: Paris, France --------------------------------------------------------------------- SETLIST: - ACT 1 (Inception Intro A) - 01: Somewhere I Belong 02: Cut the Bridge 03: From the Inside 04: The Emptiness Machine - ACT 2 (Creation Intro A) - 05: The Catalyst - Shortened (no third chorus; no breakdown) 06: BURN IT DOWN 07: Two Faced 08: Waiting for the End - 2024 Chester vocal sample intro 09: Up From the Bottom 10: One Step Closer - ACT 3 (Collapse Transition) - 11: Lost - Hybrid version 12: Overflow 13: What I've Done 14: Numb - "Numb / Encore" intro 15: In The End 16: Faint - Extended outro - ACT 4 - Encore (Resolution Intro A) - 17: Papercut - Extended intro 18: Lying From You 19: Heavy Is the Crown 20: Bleed It Out - Extended bridge with "There They Go" verse 1; extended outro
Rock Werchter should be one of the best festivals in europe to visit, propably also more relaxing to get a good place for headliner Guess for a surprise in the set we need to wait for the next tour.
Sadly it doesn't look like the band will be livestreamed, they're not on the schedule https://live.rockwerchter.be/nl/?channel=2
Starting to sound like this is a clearance issue to me. It might be a conscious decision from management. This isn't the first time Linkin Park has been the only band omitted from a livestream at one of these festivals.
Bummer for the non-stream. But indeed it definitely looks like there has been some issues with the rights and all that.
Situation could have changed. The band is very different now from what it was in 2017. I'm just spitballing based on the fact that this has happened multiple times.
SETLIST: - ACT 1 (Inception Intro A) - 01: Somewhere I Belong 02: Cut the Bridge 03: From the Inside 04: The Emptiness Machine - ACT 2 (Creation Intro A) - 05: The Catalyst - Shortened (no third chorus; no breakdown) 06: BURN IT DOWN 07: Two Faced 08: Waiting for the End - 2024 intro 09: Up From the Bottom 10: One Step Closer - ACT 3 (Collapse Transition) - 11: Lost - Hybrid version 12: Overflow 13: What I've Done 14: Numb - "Numb / Encore" intro 15: In The End 16: Faint - Extended outro - ACT 4 - Encore (Resolution Intro A) - 17: Papercut - Extended intro 18: Lying From You 19: Heavy Is the Crown 20: Bleed It Out - Extended bridge with "There They Go" verse 1; extended outro[/B] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Emily doing the full scream on Heavy Is the Crown: