The Gordel – the word means “belt” and refers to the Vlaamse rand, the municipalities in the leafy green belt around the Brussels- Capital Region – has been staged annually every September since 1981. It was aimed at a broad public – from serious cyclists on the 100km course to families out for a stroll.

The event was staged as a recognition of the cities being located in Flanders, as expats and French-speakers from Brussels were moving into the areas in ever-greater numbers. Flemish politicians have traditionally been highly visible at the events, which drew protesters from the French-speaking community, who regularly showed up to switch road signs or strew the roadway with tacks to damage bicycle tyres.

Last year Bloso, Flanders’ government agency in charge of sporting activities, announced that the Gordel would no longer continue in its existing form. The public in recent years had voted, as it were, with their feet: numbers were dwindling year on year.

Gordel Festival

Last week, Geert Bourgeois, Flemish minister for tourism and de rand, and Philippe Muyters, Flemish minister for sport, came together to announce the Gordel’s successor: the Gordelfestival. The event will now take place on the traditional first Sunday in September but also the previous Friday, when sporting activity will make room for music, with concert by Flemish bands, including De Nieuwe Snaar and Senne Guns.

The 100km cycle course is extended to 115km, and the biking and walking are supplemented by mountain-biking, hockey and this year’s Sport of the Year, golf. The provincial domains of Hofstade and Huizingen are the twin epicentres of the event, and the town of Pepingen does the honours as the inaugural guest town: in coming years there will be two of these annually.

In those three locations, as well as in community centres in the municipalities with language facilities in de rand, there will be music, sport and street theatre during the whole weekend.

“It was time for something new,” Muyters said. “We wanted to throw away the bathwater, but hang on to the baby. The addition of the word ‘festival’ to the name is a sign of the fresh new wind blowing through the foundations of the former Gordel.”

www.gordelfestival.be