Festival of Flanders (Dutch: Festival van Vlaanderen) is an annual music event at different locations in Flanders.
01 · What it is
Music
Vocal, percussive, or instrumental sound tradition carried by community performers.
02 · Where & name
Belgium
Written in its own script on record as Festival van Vlaanderen · Festival van Vlaanderen.
03 · How it is doing
□□□□ (Not yet assessed)
Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
04 · Proof & reuse
2 cited sources
Every claim links to a public record below. Free to quote, teach, and share under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Chapter Takeaways
HistoryThe Festival of Flanders has its roots in Tongeren, Limburg, where Jan Briers organized the Basilica-concerts from 1958 in the basilica of Tongeren.
SpreadingThe Festival of Flanders consists of various festivals spread across different Flemish cities and provinces:
Common Questions Answered on Record
What is Festival of Flanders in plain words?
Festival of Flanders (Dutch: Festival van Vlaanderen) is an annual music event at different locations in Flanders. In local script on record, it is written Festival van Vlaanderen.
Where is Festival of Flanders practised or documented?
Sources on this page place Festival of Flanders in Belgium.
What is the current condition of Festival of Flanders today?
□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.
How do I cite or share this Festival of Flanders entry?
Cite as: "Festival of Flanders." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/festival-of-flanders, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.
Festival of Flanders (Dutch: Festival van Vlaanderen) is an annual music event at different locations in Flanders. It started initially as a "Summer Festival", but now its activities are spread from January to May, with a peak in late summer and early autumn. 1
History
The Festival of Flanders has its roots in Tongeren, Limburg, where Jan Briers organized the Basilica-concerts from 1958 in the basilica of Tongeren. At first there was played religiously inspired choral music, but soon it was extended to other classical music, instrumental music; and other locations. Often, historical sites such as abbeys and castles are used, with an occasional transfer to Maastricht.
As in other Flemish cities (classical) summer concerts were held as well, they joined forces in 1972 and created the more comprehensive 'Festival of Flanders'.
The organization was actively supported by the newly emancipated Flemish "cultural autonomy". Especially in Brussels they wanted to exhibit "serious" Flemish culture. Partly because of this, they could bring prestigious orchestras and big names to Flanders. At the same time it gave the festival a somewhat elitist character.
In the nineties, they began to see the creation of this one-sided image and so the program was expanded to include contemporary music, sound art, youth, jazz, organ music, musical theater, and cross-overs with visual arts, film, dance. 1
Spreading
The Festival of Flanders consists of various festivals spread across different Flemish cities and provinces: 1
Antwerp:
Laus Polyphoniae:
Bruges:
MAfestival Brugge
Brussels:
KlaraFestival/The European Galas/Living Room Music/MusMA/Dorp op stap/Festival on Tour http://www.festivalbrxl.be/en Archived 2015-11-22 at the Wayback Machine
Ghent:
Gent Festival van Vlaanderen
Kortrijk:
Happy New Festival van Vlaanderen
Limburg:
Basilica Festival van Vlaanderen
Mechelen:
Mechelen hoort stemmen/Festival+/Festival Kempen
Flemish Brabant:
NOVECENTO
TRANSIT 1
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Festival of Flanders”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. 1
Festival of Flanders is music festival, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 2
The source record links this tradition to 9 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. 2