Dour is a Walloon municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 located in the Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 province of Hainaut. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 16,810 inhabitants. The total area is 33.32 km², giving a population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 of 505 inhabitants per km².

Since 1989 Dour has hosted the annual Dour Festival

Dour Festival

Dour Festival is an annual music festival in the municipality of Dour, Belgium. Since its creation in 1989, the festival has grown to an attendance of about 144,000 in 2008 . The first year, only five bands were programmed . The festival format now consists of 4 days, 6 stages and 200 bands and DJ's...

, an alternative music festival.

Dour is often considered the western end of the sillon industriel

Sillon industriel

The sillon industriel is the former industrial backbone of Wallonia and thus of Belgium. It runs across Wallonia, passing from Dour, in Borinage, in the west, to Verviers in the east, through Mons, La Louvière, Charleroi, Namur, Huy, and Liège, following the valleys of the rivers Haine, Sambre,...

, the former industrial backbone of Wallonia.