Reveil tijdschrift | Over Reveil

Over Reveil

It started in Deerlijk

In 2012, a few young guests died unexpectedly within a very short period of time in Deerlijk, West Flanders. One of them was Robbie Van Eeckhout, rock god with the band Highway Jack.

Fellow musician Pieter Deknudt wrote a song for his deceased music buddy. He noticed that few plans were made to commemorate Robbie around November 1. He wanted to play the song at the cemetery but was afraid of antagonizing people. "Music? In the cemetery? Is that respectful?"

The very first Reveil

But for Pieter, playing the Robbie song for Robbie was the most respectful thing he could do for his buddy. He was looking for some supporters. Together they decided to call the project 'Reveil'. At 5 p.m. they would pay tribute to the forgotten graves of the local cemetery. Because then the sun would set and the lights would come to life. And to disturb as few passers-by as possible.

So a while later they stood in the cemetery. In front of about 300 curious spectators. With shaking knees. Afraid of how people would feel about it. Because the last thing they wanted was to disturb people when they visited the cemetery.

The band played their first Gm chord. The local community told some local life stories. The brass band spread their serene copper glow. And it felt good.

It just keeps growing

So good that they decided to further promote the idea. In the meantime, Robbie's song Grace had been picked up in De Nieuwe Lichting, the annual song competition of Studio Brussels. The radio station decided to give Reveil a boost and a year later Reveil found its way to about twenty municipalities. The organization Poppunt supported through their platform VI.BE. The project continued to grow every year. Beautiful artists such as Ozark Henry, Niels Destadsbader, Marble Sounds, Frank Vander Linden, Dana Winner, Amenra... quickly formed an eclectic line-up of a project that organized more concerts in one hour than, say, Rock Werchter.

In 2023, 1 in 2 municipalities in Flanders organized their own local Reveil consolation concert. With local music. And poetry. And life stories.

The organization decided that the first dream of bringing people together could more or less be ticked off on November 1. So time for new challenges. Since then, the Reveil wave has been unstoppable: consolation productions, the Consolation Capital, lesson packages, Reveil Talks... are projects where Reveil builds a warmer mourning culture all year round.

Then came the magazine

There are magazines about cycling and sport fishing, but none about the most important side issue of life: death', Lander Deweer found. Lander was a good childhood friend of Pieter Deknudt and is a journalist for De Morgen. Together they looked for and found journalistic material and well-known photographers who wanted to highlight death.

The Reveil magazine was born.

On October 1, 2022, the magazine was in a thousand newsagents and you could also obtain it in De Standaard Boekhandel.

Because the first magazine was so popular, we decided to publish Reveil #2 in 2023. Even thicker and even more stories about enjoyment of life and grieving. Told by the country's best storytellers.