Dear proglovers,
finally having had some decent sleep again I can look back with a very satisfied feeling as to what has happened on saturday 15th september. The very first edition of SYMFORCE has been a success with over 1000 people attending which certainly isn't a bad start. There were friends from Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Israel, England, Brazil and USA who came all the way to see the eleven bands on offer. Every single band was present and gave their very best. From what I've heard so far is that everyone liked the idea of three different stages slightly overlapping. Sometimes it's difficult if you have to chose between say Riverside and The Pineapple Thief especially when you want to see both acts from start to finish. The survey that was handed out when people entered should give us a better insight as to what our visitors really want.
Having Beardfish in the Batcave was a must because of the Hammond organ. This heavy beast had to stay in one location as it was impossible to move it from one venue to the other during the course of the festival. That's why three bands who used the Hammond had been programmed in the Batcave : Lady Lake (who were so kind to let us use their Hammond !), Beardfish and Bootcut. I'm convinced loads of you wanted to see Beardfish and had to be satisfied with only a glimpse of them from the corridor as it was so packed !
Going for only two stages instead of three without overlapping is as far as I'm concerned impossible. Imagine 1000 people staying in the main hall and then moving to a 350 size Small Hall to see the second band. What do you do with the remaining 650 people ? These are the kind of questions and problems you have to bear in mind when setting somethng up like Symforce. I'm convinced however that for a first attempt we did pretty well and I'd like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for being there.
Will there be a SYMFORCE II ? Good question and so far I have pencilled in the third saturday of 2008 which is 20th september. However one of the coming weeks we have to sit around the table with the 013 people and evaluate the first Symforce edition. As soon as we are given the green light you'll be the first to hear about it on this MySpace blog. In the meantime you can keep your fingers crossed, burn tons of candles and have a daily prayer : it'll all help in the end !
Personally I want to thank 013 for giving me the chance to put together something as impressive as SYMFORCE. I want to thank all of the helping hands, stagemanagers, DJ's, catering people, administrative people, etc... at 013 for doing an incredible professional job. On behalf of ALL the bands a big thank you to everyone at 013 for delivering an outstanding 100% professional job resulting in everyone leaving Symforce with more than a happy feeling ! I want to thank the many websites, fanzines, prog related magazines for doing their bit to promote Symforce. In these difficult and trouble times it's no good to work against eachother, we have to work TOGETHER if we want to give OUR music a safe future and believe me there's tons of great music around and coming so it would be a big shame if it were to end. But must of all I'd like to thank Walter who put as much if not more effort and care into making this first edition of Symforce a success than he does for his own Roadburn festival. Roadburn started in two venues at 013 with three bands on each stage. It pulled around 400 people. Only after ten years Roaburn sold out and continues to do so ever since. With Symforce we immediately started at the same level Roadburn achieved after ten editions ! So for sure it was a huge gamble both what organisation is concerned as financially. Walter has put in a lot of energy in making it all work and I guess there are no chocolates enough in all of Belgium to thank him enough. Walter : I owe you BIG time !
I'm as happy as can be seeing so many faces I have never seen at a prog concert before including so many young people. It was absolutely incredible to see two teenage girls sing all the lyrics to The Pineapple Thief music. I'm convinced that Symforce has found the perfect formula to fuse 'old and new', 'vintage and upcoming' in order to please several generations all at once and to secure a future for our beloved genre of music
... may the SYMFORCE be with you ... 
Bobo