From Adam:
'Wonderful Werchter! Full of nice surprises'
Myself and my partner were very pleased to be able to attend Madonnas historic, first concert in Belgium, at the Werchter Festival Park. I was a little apprehensive and anxious at first, because the initial weather reports for the weekend were ghastly to say the least. However, after obtaining some waterproof ponchos we jetted from Newcastle to Brussels on Friday evening and then by train for the short journey, onwards to Leuven, our base for the weekend.
This was a charming little town (famous for Stella Artois beer!) and perfect for a relaxing build up to the excitement that lay ahead on Saturday night.
As usual, the infrastructure organisation for this event was second to none, I seriously wont attend, possible, future Madonna events in London after all of the stupid, public transport short falls we have seen over the past few years. The main bus company 'De Lijn' ran a very regular shuttle service from Leuven, out to the festival site from the railway station. They used rather bouncy, bendy buses which carried lots of people at a time and were great fun!
They dropped us off at a designated spot where everyone then walked the final mile or so to the site which was very pleasant indeed. There were 2 local pubs in the village centre which were doing a roaring trade in beer for people who wanted a drink before entering the site, and houses which over looked the area seemed to be having concert house parties as they would have been able to hear everything going on inside!
Once inside the park, you couldnt help but be amazed at the size of the place! It was enormous! The space was a godsend as it meant you werent squashed in, and you had completely uninterupted views of the stage from all angles. There were banks of video screens and speakers so you couldnt miss the procedings if you tried. There were loads of stalls and booths supplying every food, beverage and novelties you could think of and there were toilets galore. Yes, the Belgians were deadly serious in making this event a big success indeed!
By the time we got in, Paul Oakenfold had started his set which was brill, much better than the set he did in Cardiff 3 years ago on the Confessions Tour. The rain kept coming in batches, but as if by magic, it all stopped by about 2100 hours, and the sky became much brighter like a typical summers evening. I nearly bumped into Scott Mills from Radio 1 which was a nice surprise. I didn't say anything to him because he was obviously there in his own time and was probably appreciating not being mobbed by people if he was back in the UK.
After final checks on the stage and after removing waterproofing covers, the background music stopped, some of the lights dimmed and by about 2210 the show started! I really enjoyed the shows last year in Paris and Cardiff, so was looking forward to the amendments made to the 2009 leg of the tour. They fitted in very well, Holiday, leading up to the Michael Jackson medley, then Dress You Up given its rock make over. My favourite parts though are the middle to end bit.
I love the Gypsy section with a passion! From Devil Wouldn't, through La Isla Bonita to You Must Love Me, all fun, fun, fun. The best though was saved to last with the brilliant version of Like A Prayer moving straight now into an excellant dance version of Frozen. I hope someone has a recording of this on You Tube as I don't think its going to make it onto a DVD. By quarter past midnight it was all over! The crowd were great, everyone seemed so chilled and happy, no long faces at all.
Despite the late finish it was so easy getting back to Leuven, dozens of bendy busses were waiting there to shift the vast crowd in a very efficient way.
So then, a brilliant weekend all round. Thankyou Belgium! You were wonderful hosts, I'm sure Madonna appreciated your hard work to make her show a success. I am now eagerly waiting my next installment when I catch up with Madonna again in sunny Barcelona!
God Bless you all! :)

From Katie:
Being in London and Arnhem for the Reinvention Tour and twice in Amsterdam for Confessions an Sticky & Sweet, I was very excited for Madonna's visit to Belgium on this second leg of her Sticky & Sweet Tour and was very glad she anwered my prayer on Madonnalicious.com three years ago to visit our little country on a next tour. As the doors opened at 4 pm, Madonna was doing her first soundcheck which made me very excited....Iucky to be on the good side of the entrance to be close to the waiting area to get onto the festival plain, we were in the few first rows there.
At 5.30 pm Madonna did a second soundcheck 5.45 these gates opened as well and the running for the best spots could begin....we found ourselves at the second row. Barely over the fact that we were so close to the stage, Madonna came on again, practising some more on some songs and dance moves. It was so unreal to be there and see her practise, she somehow was more human than ever to me at that time.....she made the crowd go 'rain, rain, go away' as it had been raining during the afternoon.
The show started late as darkness only started to kick in around 10 pm. Madonna was clearly in a good mood as she was smiling a lot and enjoying herself on stage, but somehow the crowd wasn't always as willing as I think she wanted. During La Isla Bonita there was only minor T-shirt throwing, and she made less comments to the crowd than I am used to in Holland. She said 'You rock!' at a certain point, thanked us for being a good crowd and said she was glad the rain stopped, but that was about it.
But to be honest (and I know people will probably hate me for saying so), this was the worst Madonna-crowd I have ever been in....there was not as much interaction as usual, less handclapping, less jumping and having a ball,....and worst of all, everyone was a bit hostile and fighting over every square inch they could their hands on. We started the soundcheck at the second row and by the beginning of the show we were on the fifth because of all the pushing.
I must say I have to admit the English and Dutch have a way better discipline than the Belgians when it comes to concerts, and I am willing to drive to Amsterdam or thaking the Eurostar to London again with pleasure for her future shows.
Despite that, the show was awesome again. The changes and new songs make the show fresher, better and somewhat more logical at certain points. It was great to hear Holiday and Dress You Up again. For me, the gypsy part of the show is the best, even though I am not that fond of 'Spanish Lesson', I think Devil Wouldn't Recognise You and La Isla Bonita are awesome. You Must Love Me yet again brought me to tears and is my favorite song in the show.
The last part of the show makes the whole thing complete with powerful songs as Like A Prayer (I just love the way 'Don't You Want Me/Felix is mixed into this song) and 4 Minutes. In the end, the crowd finally loosened up a bit and jumped throughout Frozen and Ray Of Light. The new version of Frozen makes a great addition to the show and I was glad she performed this song, as there was a lot to do about in Belgium with the plagiarism case.
Anyway I loved the show, too bad the crowd didn't always go wild and has less discipline than I hoped they'd have. On the other hand, this concert probably was the first 'up close and personal' with Madonna for many Belgians, maybe next time (if there will be a next time) they won't act as silly as they did this time....

From Stef:
Yesterday I got up at 6:00am too nervous to sleep, Madonna was coming to Belgium, Werchter, for the very first time. Round 9:30am we gathered our stuff and drove to the venue.
We arrived at parking at 11:00am and sat down before the entrance just minutes later cheering and having fun. There was so much love in the air.
Britney performed there the night before and everybody was complaining she was lipsynching and saying she still got a long way to go as a pop princess, nothing like our Queen Madonna.
The weather gods fooled around with us giving rain, sunshine, rain and more rain. At 4:00pm the first doors opened and we went for our golden circle wrist band (THANK YOU MADONNA FANCLUB FOR THE PRESALES). We ran for a minute to find ourselves again before a gate. Standing there we could hear Madonna doing here soundcheck but black plastic kept her out of sight. Finally round 6:00pm we were able to enter the festival grounds. I ran and I ran shouting 'Where’s the golden cirle entrance?'
We placed ourselves right in front of the main stage next to the catwalk and who was on stage talking to the sound and light crew, wearing a beautiful purple outfit....MADONNA. I just couldn’t believe it, we all cried out to her and she heard us because she took her guitar and got on the runway.
'Hello Belgium will you sing with me?' Yeahhhhhhhhh!
'Sing after me. Rain, Rain go away. Rain, Rain go away'
Then she performed two songs including Frozen (a song she wasn’t really allowed to sing in Belgium due to a court case of a writer who claimed she stole the tune from him).
At 8:00pm Paul Oakenfold started his performance and I soon found out I took the right spot to watch the show as I was standing under the ceiling as it started to pour with rain.
The crew did their best to dry the stage and check if all was okay for Madonna. Her prayers were heard because it stopped raining for the entire show.
Then lights went out, visuals on the screen and there she was smiling and sitting on her throne as the Queen she is.
During the dancing she almost slipped on a wet spot and fell over some tapestry, immediately repaired by her professional crew.
In front of me was an Italian guy who won the Icon contest and went behind the scenes. Madonna paid extra attention to him, he even got to sing along with Into The Groove. As I was standing right behind him, I sang along as loud as I could.
The show was perfect even better then the last one. Dress You Up was a real sing along for all the older fans, Like A Prayer just rocked, Frozen was amazing, I was almost in tears with You Must Love Me and her tribute to Michael was so sweet.
With Ray Of Light she addressed the audience asking if they were having a good time and asking them to jump and sing along. I did miss Hung Up, I liked that rock version but no worries she didn’t gave me the time to miss it with all the other hits.
I could go on and on about the show but I don’t want to ruin the fun for all of you who still need to go.
After Give It 2 Me the game was over and we headed out.
Standing in front of the stage had one disadvantage.....it took us 3 and a half hours to get out of the parking on to the highway . It was 5:00am when I finally got home. Was it worth it? Would you do it again? My boyfriend asked me. Yes, Yes, Yes!
See you next time Madonna, love you.

From Tom:
Just woke up from a fuzzy dream, but in fact....it was real.
With the golden circle tickets we went frontstage like never before. The whole crew was soundchecking, the Queen was right in front of us. 'This is the real f*cking show' she said and indeed it was.
We got a soundcheck of 'Ray Of Light', 'Frozen' and 'Miles Away'. She was in a extremely good mood. We were thrilled, this was truly truly way amazing. Dancers enjoyed themselves and made jokes with the early frontstagers.
It started raining but as we were where actually under the stage and could enjoy fully without getting wet. The stage had to take preparations for the rain which is probably why Madonna started at 22:15. God, she was beautiful as ever and was in a good mood like she enjoyed being in Belgium. The crowd went out of its mind.
La Isla Bonita, You Must Love Me were the absolute crowdpleasers. I saw the show in Cardiff last year, but this was bigger. 'Vogue' only was already worth to see the show again. The Queen was relaxed and happy. We had the night of our lives. Madonna, we love you!