About Cultural Tours

ABOUT THE GHENT FESTIVAL According to Lonely Planet “Ghent has one of Europe’s most dynamic festival scenes, which vies for visitors’ attention.”  The Ghent Festival, or “Gentse Feesten” in Dutch and “Gentsche Fieste” in the local dialect, is a 10-day open-air festival with live music and theatre in the medieval city of Ghent in Belgium.

“Flanders Today”, a local paper catering for ex-pats in Belgium, describes it as follows: “It isn’t just one great big festival, it’s the culmination of many small ones that come together to create the wonder we know as the Gentse Feesten. Almost every square and open space in Ghent is commandeered by buskers, artists, performers, musicians, vendors and the nearly 1.5 million people that descend on the capital of East Flanders for this 10-day, 24-hour party.(...) Virtually all(...) is free: that includes 13 public spaces with live music day and night, a street theatre festival and a puppet buskers’ festival, both of which are now among the most respected in Europe. (...)

Each available square and museum in the historic city centre has staged events, but there are also random small street acts such as mimickers, and buskers to keep you entertained.  About 1.5 million visitors attend the festival every year, making it one of the biggest cultural and popular festivals in Europe. In a 2005 ranking by www.localfestivities.com, the Gentse Feesten was called the third biggest city festival in visitor numbers in Europe, only preceded by the Fallas in Valencia and the Oktoberfest in Munich. The Ghent Choir and Organ Festival is held mainly at the medieval St Michaels’ church as part of the Ghent Festival. It runs from the first Saturday until the final Sunday of the festival. Each day choirs from all over the world perform at the church, either in an afternoon concert, or as part of a sung Service. Each afternoon there also organ recitals. The audience capacity is 400+ and the church is generally full for performances. Entrance is free to the public. It is truly a wonderful experience to participate at this unique event.