Rock Werchter 2018 - Werchter, Belgium (July 5-8, 2018)

Sounds like Nick Cave isn't headlining this, at least not by himself (but he haven't been headlining Werchter in the past)

Oscar & The Wolf self confirmed via an interview in a Dutch magazine that he'd close the festival, let's hope it's not true because that'd be a disappointing co-headliner. Yeah, Nick Cave sold out a 23k venue in an hour or something which is pretty mad.

festileaks.com/2017/12/max-colombie-we-sluiten-rock-werchter-2018-af/

Nope..

"The year 2017 went like a dream, that's how it felt. New album, new shows, a lot of succes. This year also felt very intense to me. A lot of pressure and sometimes uncomfortable. Looking back, the time in the studio was probably the most fun. The shows cost a lot of energy and are accompanied by
a lot of stress. Technically everything has to be alright. Our albums are important, but we don't see this apart from our liveshows. There's a whole team behind that and for the new show I had to reinvent myself again. Also visually. Is everything going to be alright? Is the crowd going to enjoy it? The difference between a good and a less good one is that you really feel that on stage. This year, we didn't even do a lot of big festivals, we limited ourselves to shows a category just beneath that: Down The Rabbit Hole and Lokerse Feesten. In 2018 we're gonna close Rock Werchter. Then I'm going to stand for a massive crowd. That'll be my biggest shows thus far."

The weird thing exactly is that he already got booked to do Boutique, so why is there a) no mention of that in the article or b) maybe something went wrong, and was actually booked to close Rock Werchter but got moved to sub at Boutique and that the interview got taken before the changes?

My source was saying a lot of things and being really vague the last couple of weeks. Arctic Monkeys is the biggest rumour and according to my source they're going announce everything all at once on January 8th. I've no clue what day they'll play because but probably Friday. The xx were contacted aswell but weren't happy with the spot they were given, so that's probably where Oscar & The Wolf comes in the story? But I just can't see The xx not wanting to close a festival (so billed on Sunday) soo I assume they wanted The xx to sub Arctic Monkeys or something but according to that interview O&TW said he'd close the festival.. So that doesn't really add up does it?
Next up, The Killers, my source was saying that they were trying to let them sub before Pearl Jam. If that plan actually worked, idk. From Kendrick we only know that he'll be available in Europe for a very short time period. The founder of RW, Herman Schueremans, is a massive booker and influence in the European festival scene and Kendrick Lamar is very high on his list of artists he wants to program but I also know since Kendrick is already playing a few London shows he won't be at Wireless (since that's around the same period as RW, in London etc).. So I'm guessing Kendrick will be in Europe for Reading & Leeds and a few others.. But I could be wrong ofcourse
Then ofcourse you got a few dance acts like Jamiroquai, The Chemical Brothers, Justice etc but I don't have much information about those. 

I've got a bunch of artists confirmed who are also on the Mad Cool line up, but much more then that I can't really say, can I

My guess right now for the main only would be:
Noel Gallagher - QOTSA - Gorillaz
London Grammar - AM - The Chems
30STM - The Killers - PJ
Snow Patrol - Nick Cave - Oscar & The Wolf

Not yet.

* 11 new names today: Ben Howard, James Bay, Alice In Chains, At The Drive In, The Vaccines, Stone Sour, George Ezra, Anne-Marie, PVRIS, IAMDDB and JP Cooper
* a new stage called The Slope for upcoming and local bands/artists
* The Barn gets an upgrade, going from 14k to 20k

Announced so far;

Gorillaz - Queens Of The Stone Age
The Script - James Bay - Marshmello
Alice In Chains - At The Drive-In - The Vaccines
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Vince Staples - Anne-Marie

London Grammar - Snow Patrol - Ben Howard - Anderson.Paak & The Free Nationals 
Angus & Julia Stone - The Kooks 
IAMDDB

Pearl Jam - Jack White
Jack Johnson - Fleet Foxes - Khalid
MGMT - Stereophonics - Stone Sour
Petit Biscuit - JP Cooper

Arctic Monkeys - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Nine Inch Nails - Eels
David Byrne - George Ezra - Fever Ray - Kaleo - Roméo Elvis & Le Motel - Rone
PVRIS

Ben Howard is definitely underrated in the U.S.