The first edition of this biennial festival in January of 2006 was an instant success. Wintervuur is staged in a different part of Antwerp, bringing the crowds together in a new place each time for dozens of cultural excursions (many free), walks and gastronomic delicacies. Besides attending performances in nooks and crannies of the neighbourhood – both hidden and popular – festival goers get the chance to mingle and savour seasonal festivities.

This year’s host is Linkeroever, famously cut off from the centre of Antwerp by the Scheldt River. (It’s Antwerp’s “left bank”, if you will.) Linkeroever will be the heart and soul of this nomadic operation that intertwines the history of the neighbourhood with that of the larger city.

The festivities kick off on 28 December with some art, music, and a giant bonfire spectacle on the Fredrik van Eedenplein (renamed the Wintervuurplein for the duration of the festival).

Wintervuur is host to theatre, circus, concerts and organised walks, plus the opportunity to visit complete strangers in their own homes for some good oldfashioned storytelling (the Vertelfestival) or to watch 35mm slapstick movies and historic footage, courtesy of the travelling cinema Crazy Cinématographe.

A spiegeltent – a temporary pavilion with dance floor, cosy booths and mirrors all the way around – will serve up traditional Flemish winter meals throughout the festival and is home to the Winter Ball on New Year’s Eve, which is free.

A final, unique touch this year is the Sint-Annekes Boat. Linkeroever, the left bank, can normally be reached via an underground tunnel, but for Wintervuur the shipping company Flandria (who handled the crossing before the tunnel was built) will give visitors the chance to reach their destination by ferry – just like the good old days. Back on shore, a horse-drawn carriage will bring you to the Wintervuurplein.

Wintervuur is fun but also strategic: it begins after Christmas when the weather is often freezing and when some people experience post-Christmas blues. It carries you through the New Year and on into January when you most need a bit of a lift. The recipe is working – most of the ticketed events are already sold out.

Wintervuur
28 December to 3 January
Linkeroever (Antwerp)
www.wintervuur.be

Many of the performances of Wintervuur are free; some require tickets. Almost all of them are staged more than once. You can still get tickets for:

Compagnie Ieto-Ieto: Two acrobats grapple with the laws of gravity in this short family show

Circo Ripopolo: Everyone needs a ticket to this show, but, alas, performer Giancarlo is not very good at organising events. His partner tries to find a solution in this interactive show where the audience is encouraged to reveal a few secrets

Benjamin Verdonck: This eccentric Antwerp performance artist draws to a close his year-long Kalendar project with a theatrical presentation of every oddball stunt he's pulled in the last year in his beloved city

't Aresenaal & Brussels Jazz Orchestra: Girls turn into trees, and everything you touch turns to gold in this imaginative performance of storytelling and animations, backed up by the BJO. This is one not to miss