Ghent Festival of Flanders showcases local talent

This year’s 24 concerts and other events continue the tradition. Festival organisers have invited some of the classical and world music scenes’ best-loved artists to perform in venues across the city. This year’s theme is “Heroes,” which encompasses all the people to whom we look daily for inspiration, be they community leaders, good Samaritans or – naturally – artists.

The festival's centrepiece Accattone plays fast and loose with the theme. A musical stage adaptation of Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s eponymous 1961 film, the plot revolves around a small-time street pimp who tries to go straight (and fails).

Accattone’s soundtrack, borrowed from the Bach songbook, lends an air of ironic grandeur to this tale of ambiguous, everyday heroism. The production marks the arrival of prestigious city theatre NTGent’s new director, Johan Simons, but is staged in a decidedly unconventional setting: a warehouse on Ghent’s industrial waterfront.

The festival’s kick-off party this Saturday, meanwhile, is an entire festival in itself. During OdeGand, the entire city centre come alive in a day-long orgy of music and celebration. A single ticket gives you access to 60 mid-length concerts in dozens of venues, not to mention in the open air along the waterfront. You make your own schedule, walking – or taking one of the OdeGand boats along the canal – between the many participating venues.

The “Heroes” theme is given its most literal treatment in the family program KidsOdeGand, which sees Emile Braunplein taken over by costumed superheroes and a giant mechanical bird. The event ends with a bang, literally. The free closing concert features a performance of the classic Broadway musical West Side Story, followed by fireworks and a bonfire.
12-27 September

Photo by Wouter Rawoens