Arsene50 was set up in 2003 by the Brussels Stichting voor de Kunsten (Foundation for the Arts) and has been growing steadily since. You used to have to brave the queues at one of two selling points to buy tickets for the evening’s shows, but now you can just book online. The two box offices, inside Flagey and the Arenberg cinema, continue to sell tickets, but their main purpose now is to inform and guide visitors through the city’s vast cultural offerings.
Arsene50 encourages an entirely new approach to going out: instead of making long-term plans, you can decide on the spur of the moment what your mood, your social life or even the weather dictate. The price cut and short time lag mean that people are much more willing to act on impulse, and therefore take risks.
Although the website can be accessed at all times, bookings only take place from Tuesday to Saturday between 14.00 and 17.30 and only apply to shows on the same day. Exceptions are shows held on Sundays and Mondays, for which tickets are bought on the Saturday. Some degree of advance planning is made possible by the e-newsletter, to which one can subscribe for free and which gives a provisional list of shows for the week. Bear in mind, though, that changes can and do occur.
More than 130 venues take part in Arsene50 and nearly as many unsold tickets are put up for grabs each day. Among participants are Bozar, KVS, the Beursschouwburg, the Europalia festival and the Queen Elisabeth music competition, but also many small cultural centres and jazz clubs. Last week, I had a choice between attending a French-language adaptation of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the Théâtre des Martyrs for €8.50, viewing Lynn Shelton’s film Humpday at the Arenberg for a fiver or catching Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at De Munt for just €11 (top category tickets were going for €53).
Not that you really have to choose – for that sort of price, who wouldn’t be tempted to go out every day?
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