Ghent Festival

Month : July
Place : Ghent, Belgium
Famous For : Arts Festival
Attractions : Public drunkenness, Street Acts, Party.

The Gentse Feesten is a popular music and theatre festival celebrated on the occasion of Belgium's national holiday. It's celebrated on the Saturday before July 21in the city of Ghent (Belgium). The celebrations of Gentse Feesten lasts for ten days with the last day termed as De dag van de lege portemonnees (The day of the empty wallets) . The most noticeable fact of this festival is that the last day is always a Monday.

Major Attractions

The Gentse Feesten festival traces its origin in the year 1843. The intensity of the festivities changed throughout the years, sometimes very strong and radiant (e.g. the 100-year anniversary was said to be very festive and lively), but sometimes also very low-key. The modern day Gentse Feesten were started in the summer of 1969 by Ghent singer Walter De Buck and the people from the Trefpunt cafe. In the beginning the festival consisted of one stage near the Saint Jacob Church. Since the late eighties the festival has grown enormously and now covers the whole inner city of Ghent. Although the festival has become a mass event, it has retained some of the rebellious and anarchistic atmosphere of the early days. Public drunkenness is not entirely unseen. Besides stage events there are random small street acts such as mimickers, buskers, etc. The Gentse Feesten festival is a ten-day break for Ghent's 19th century peasants, during which they released all their pent-up holiday spirit in an immense, vigorous party. The level of enthusiasm has remained just the same!