Odegand is the kick-off to the Ghent portion of the Festival of Flanders – a months-long classical and new music festival staged across the region, with each province presenting its own programme. Ghent has figured out how to dissolve the “hard sell” of classical: stage a free festival across the centre of town so nobody can, in fact, miss it. Innocent bystanders, as well as the initiated, will find outdoor stages of tango, brass bands and Mexican dance to introduce a season of equally diverse classical blends.

“That’s what a festival needs to do,” says Jelle Dierickx, Odegand’s artistic director, “make a new audience enthusiastic about classical music and music in general. Events like this show people that there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

That’s the free part: Odegand is also a set of about 60 concerts staged in venues across the city. Buy a ticket for €24 and make your own programme of concerts throughout the day and evening. Your one ticket gets you into any of them, and it also gets you transport: you can reach all the venues via canal on one of several festival boats. “We think what a festival really does is connect people,” says Dierickx, “and water is very important in a city in doing that, too.”

The difficult part of Odegand is deciding which concerts to attend; the event prides itself on being an abundance of riches.

Flemish conductor Florian Heyerick is presenting a selection of work by German composer Christoph Graupner – no small feat with nearly 1,500 church cantatas from which to choose. Heyerick has gone with littleknown works you probably won’t see on any other programme.

The 19-year-old pianist Claire Huangci, meanwhile, interprets Chopin, which last year brought her first place in the Darmstadt International Chopin Competition. Also from the US, jazz musician Uri Caine will revive his 1997 album that was dedicated to Mahler.

All these are good choices, but for something more o)eat, definitely make Heaven and Hell part of your day: Belgian metal band My Lament joins classical musicians and a soprano to put the work of William Blake to music. You’d also do well to see Japan’s Kodo drummers.

At the end of the evening, everyone comes together for the free closing concert, which is a mix of music and theatre in collaboration with city theatre NT Gent. The whole thing wraps up with fireworks at 23.00.

Should you venture into the rest of Ghent’s packed three-week festival, don’t miss The Dark Night of the Soul, in which German group Qntal turns from a classical mediaeval ensemble into a Goth band before your very eyes; the bass voice of American Joel Frederiksen as he acts out songs of the English lute with his Phoenix Ensemble Munich; and the Venetian Ball, which, after you’ve chosen your evening’s disguise, serves classical ensembles together with the perfect wine.

Ghent’s programme has an overall theme of “Beyond Dreams” because, says Dierickx, “that’s where we’re going.” He recalls a quote sometimes attributed to 20th-century cellist and conductor Pablo Casals: The most important thing in music is what is not in the notes. “So we thought, if it’s not in the notes, let’s show them where it is. It’s in life, it’s in our hearts.”