After several years of exploring the Slushwave scene online, I had the opportunity to be invited as a performing artist on the second day of Slushwave 2025. It was an amazing weekend, filled with great music, interesting meetings, and a lot of kindness from everyone involved. That experience left a lasting mark on me, and for 2026, I decided to involve Vaporloot. We are now official sponsors of the festival, and I intend to cover the event through a series of articles. To kick things off and to hopefully convince the undecided to take the plunge (or inspire those planning to attend next year) Zero Rei kindly took the time to answer a few of my questions.
For those discovering you for the first time, could you introduce yourself and tell us about your journey into the world of slushwave ?
Hi ! I’m Sebastien, more commonly known as Zer0 Rei (or Zer0れい for those who’ve been in the community a bit longer). I’ve been a noise musician and concert organiser in the Kortrijk, Belgium area since the early 2010s. I started experimenting with vaporwave as a
music genre in 2018. Initially I released with DIY darlings such as Seikomart, power_lunch and Aquablanca, then eventually got the chance to release my music on vinyl through My Pet Flamingo, Hiraeth and Needlejuice records.
My connection to slushwave formed pretty organically through a good friendship with desert sand feels warm at night that started back on the Private Suite Magazine discord server, and eventually led to me designing some pretty iconic album covers for albums such as New World Disciples, Desert Memories and Vjaġġ tal-Qalb.
Turning an online community into a physical gathering is a unique challenge. How did the idea of creating a Slushwave festival in Kortrijk come to life ?
desert sand and myself had been somewhat jokingly talking about doing live gigs together for quite some time, and got to meet up a couple times in person already for gigs and just to hang out. Slushwave as a festival had been doing great since 2020, and I was quite vocal about how impressed I was with the quality of not only the music but also the visuals and hosting.
Then in late 2023 we started trying to figure out what a live edition could look like. I managed to set up a meeting with some of the people behind Arts Centre Buda, a cultural juggernaut in Kortrijk that hosts a ton of alternative cinema, media arts and performing arts
events. Thanks to Kortrijk being a pretty small city, there were a couple of people at Buda that had volunteered and organised in the same DIY punk venue that me and my wife were involved in, so they kinda knew how we run things and how serious I am when I tackle
something. Honestly, they were hugely enthusiastic and quite quickly decided to give us that initial chance to try it live.
If I check my notes for that first edition in 2024, we ended up at 25 voice calls, 38 pages of notes and then a ton of in-person meetings to bring that weekend together. Pretty insane, especially since our team was spread between Belgium, Germany, The United Kingdom
and the United States. We only all met in person together for the first time at the festival.
The lineup for this edition looks really exciting. Which artists are you most looking forward to seeing, and who do you think might surprise the audience ?
The fun part there is that desert sand curates the full lineup and does so with an incredible level of care. Each year is quite the puzzle, bringing together established names, upcoming talent and innovative musicians within that Slushwave sphere. Doubly so now that we’re
doing things live and we need to take into consideration travel and artists being able to perform live.
I’m personally hugely looking forward to some of the live debuts. I’m a big fan of both Glaciære and 18 DAYS, and can’t wait to see how they’ll tackle a live set. I’ve been lucky enough to see both days of blue and 818181 live before (at Summer Slushy in New York and Naturewave last year respectively) and am really excited to see how much they’ve evolved since then and how they’ll take to the big stage.
At the Slushwave, visual artists seem to be as essential as the musicians themselves, creating worlds that exist alongside the music. How do you see the relationship between sound and visuals within the festival ?
As a visual artist that’s of course something that’s deeply personally meaningful for me. Truth be told, it’s tough to describe the in-person experience when you’re at Slushwave’s main event. At the same time you’re at the cinema watching a movie, in your room reading chat and listening to tunes on your PC, and watching an amazing live gig. The screen and sound kind of envelop you completely as you sink into the plush seats. It could never work that well without the incredible visuals.
Beyond the performances, the festival has a space where people can discover labels, exchange tapes and connect through physical releases. How important is it for you to preserve this tangible aspect of slushwave culture in a digital era ?
I’m someone that comes from the punk scene, where physical releases on tape and vinyl are hugely important. I have tons of fond memories searching through touring bands’ merch boxes and finding cool albums from projects they’ve encountered on the road or that are part of their scene on the other side of the world. So it felt natural to make sure that aspect of the scene was also accurately represented. From day one we tried to get as many labels and musicians that are active in Europe represented at the event. Tackling this in such an open way also fits the ethos of the Slushwave scene, and I think it contributes to the scene feeling like a very wholesome and supportive space.
The festival keeps evolving with each edition. What are the main changes or additions that people can look forward to this year ?
We took a fairly big step for 2026 in terms of the structure of the festival. Previous editions had the live streams happening purely online for the first two days, with the third day on Saturday being hybrid (both live and fully livestreamed). We then added plenty of additional little events to make sure there was enough to do for people in Kortrijk, but it felt a bit sad that the people online couldn’t catch those additional bits, such as 猫 シ Corp. and Tim Six playing live at De Kreun (a concert venue here in Kortrijk). This year we’re aiming to do the whole three days as a hybrid livestream, with acts on Thursday and Friday playing live and a lot of the interviews being done live in Kortrijk with the audience there. It’s a serious technical challenge, but we really want both our online and offline viewers to have that full festival experience.
Naturewave on day four is my personal favorite experience of the festival. It leans more towards ambient and creates a very different atmosphere. What was the idea behind creating this part of the event ?
It genuinely came about pretty simply: we have a bunch of cool musicians that are there for the festival but don’t fit onto the lineup, either from lack of space or that they’re not strictly “slushwave.” So let’s set up a quick and easy soundsystem and have all those awesome acts play live in a park the day after. Sadly this means no visuals, but it’s indeed an incredible atmosphere.
Last year, the festival seemed to create a rare atmosphere of kindness, connection and togetherness. Was building this sense of community and warmth something you consciously wanted to achieve ?
We could only hope, of course. But yeah, it’s been kind of crazy how genuine and nice everyone’s been. We do really try to nurture that environment though. We’re very conscious of not only the artists we invite but also the atmosphere we foster, and are actively trying to be an inclusive festival with a diverse lineup. That was also something we had to learn, that if you want your lineup to actually reflect that diversity and feature smaller creators, then you need to invest in them and create a safe space for them to step onto the stage, often for the first time. If you just open your door to everyone equally, then you’ll get people who can travel the easiest and can take more risks. It’s an interesting balance.
When someone leaves the Slushwave Festival, what feeling or memory would you like them to carry with them ?
This might sound a bit cheesy, but I’d like to think it’s the kind of festival that gives hope. That there are genuine musicians out there that create music not for financial gain or fame but because it’s some kind of universal language that goes beyond borders and boundaries. Online we’re often confronted with the most destructive and hateful elements of a music scene, this feels like a bit of an antidote to that.
To finish, looking back at all the editions of the festival, is there one particular moment or memory that still stays with you today?
I had a beer with desert sand and 猫 シ Corp., at the bar where I did some of my first artworks and promoted some of my first music releases 20 years ago. All in my tiny hometown. That’s the kind of thing that’ll stick around in the back of my head for a good while. I felt like I must be doing something right with my life, haha.
Many thanks to Zer0 Rei and the Slushwave team for letting Vaporloot be part of this event. I hope this gave you a better idea of what the festival is about, and maybe even convinced you to attend ! Follow and support the festival on social media via the links below. And if you spot me there, don’t hesitate to come over and say hello, I’ll be handing out free stickers !
Website : https://www.slushwave.info
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/slushwavefestival
Slushwave Social Club discord : https://discord.gg/slushwave
Slushwave Festival Merch Shop : https://www.slushwave.info/shop
If you enjoyed this article and want to stay updated with our latest content, subscribe to our newsletter !
