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🇧🇪 Belgium /Culture & Society

Bruges Reiefestival draws 11,000 visitors: “Heritage and contemporary art strengthen each other”

From VRT NWS · () Dutch

Translated from Dutch and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • The second Bruges Reiefestival attracted 11,000 visitors over three days of theatre, music, dance, installations and participatory projects.
  • The programme included “The Weight of Water,” a performance on a tilting staircase that referenced climate problems and political responses to them.
  • About 65 professional artists took part, and five new works were created specially for the festival, which used unusual locations across the city.

The Bruges Reiefestival drew 11,000 visitors over three days, turning the city’s canals, quays and private gardens into stages for theatre, music and dance.

The combination with the water is fun, and the tilting staircase is original and innovative.

· Festival visitorA visitor praised the performance’s unusual setting and design.

One of the most striking works was “The Weight of Water,” in which performers combined dance and acrobatics on a tilting staircase set on the water. The performance was a pointed reference to climate problems and the way politicians deal with them. Visitors praised the unusual setting and the originality of the moving staircase, while also recognising the political message behind the piece.

The production had been planned for Minnewater, but blue-green algae forced it to move to Sint-Pietersplas. It had already been performed in Antwerp the previous month. The festival also featured intimate listening experiences, large-scale performances on the water, free installations and ticketed site-specific theatre.

It was clear that it was about the climate problem and the political game surrounding it.

· Festival visitorA visitor described the work’s environmental and political message.

Five new creations were developed especially for the event, and visitors assembled their own programmes from the offerings. Around 65 professional artists participated in the festival’s second edition.

The Reiefestival shows how heritage and contemporary art can strengthen each other.

· Dirk De fauwThe Bruges mayor and Brugge Plus chairman described the festival’s central cultural idea.

“The Reiefestival shows how heritage and contemporary art can strengthen each other,” said Dirk De fauw, Bruges mayor and chairman of Brugge Plus. He said the city’s exceptional setting allowed thousands of visitors to experience Bruges in a new way and showed there was a broad audience for high-quality art outside traditional cultural venues.

Bruges has an exceptional setting, and that is precisely what makes this festival so special.

· Dirk De fauwDe fauw highlighted the city’s role in the festival.
About this summary

Originally published by VRT NWS in Dutch. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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