Tourism is, of course, a very conservative institution, so it's not surprising to find that tourist Ostend largely resembles any other tourist district at any other seaside destination. One must cater, so goes the trade's logic, to the lowest common denominators of consumer need: the tourist wants only to sleep well, swim often, eat extravagantly and drink deep
It needn't always be that way. A little over a decade ago, a handful of enterprising Ostenders imagined a different strategy, one that gives both the town and the tourist a bit more credit. They began from the premise that culture can be capital. So Theater aan Zee (Theatre at the Sea) first appeared in 1997, dedicated to a provocative brand of street theatre (a performer in those first years was even arrested for disturbing the peace), as well as experimental stage and video productions. Subsequent years found the festival expanding to include music.
Since 2006, the TAZ committee has practiced a division of labour, annually selecting two central guest curators to represent music and theatre respectively. This year rock singer, national celebrity and native Ostender Arno Hintjens presents an eclectic music programme that reflects the diversity of his current home, Brussels. Jan Goossens, artistic director of the Royal Flemish Theatre (KVS) in Brussels, brings contemporary performance from Belgium and beyond to the seaside.
The festival committee had been courting Arno for some time. Indeed, being one of Ostend's most famous sons, he was an obvious choice. His tour schedule, however, left little time for a commitment that would stretch across an entire year of planning, meetings, rehearsals and publicity. The singer was finally stirred to action by the symbolic importance of the year 2009, which marks the 60th anniversary of James Ensor's death (and, coincidentally, Arno's birth).
It's clear from this gesture that Arno shares the conviction that his hometown has more to offer than paint-by-numbers tourist "culture". Ostend is a victim of its own success, he tells me across a table in a local café - typecast and unable to break free of the role of predictable seaside resort.
"For many people," says Arno, "this town is just a long street next to a big swimming pool with boats in it." Ostend needs something more if it hopes to compete in the 21st century. His solution - "only culture can save Ostend" - echoes the TAZ creed.
Culture is nothing new to Ostend. Arno's nod to Ensor, who lived in Ostend for most of his life, suggests the depth of the town's cultural heritage. The painter's house in Vlaanderenstraat is preserved as a museum and the man himself is interred nearby. In fact, the James Ensor House will serve as backdrop to TAZ's opening concert on 31 July, a choral performance of Bob Dylan's epic "Desolation Row".
Years ago, Arno discovered a Getty Museum catalogue which paired an image of Ensor's famous painting "Christ's Entry into Brussels" and Dylan's infamous lyrics. Arno had just finished describing how forcefully this combination impressed itself on his imagination when we were joined quite fortuitously by another Ostender, the indefatigable Ensor scholar Xavier Tricot, who lends his expertise to exhibitions from Los Angeles to Athens (and evidently spends the occasional afternoon drinking and chatting in Ostend cafés). Arno and Tricot agree that the town doesn't do nearly enough to promote Ensor's legacy.
Arno is not just looking toward local talent, however. He sees TAZ as a forum for international arts. "Theater Aan Zee has been very good in the past at recruiting great performers from Flanders," he explains. "But I wanted to reach out further. Brussels and Ostend are like brother and sister. Let's use that connection."
Arno has resided in the capital for decades now. The city offers a wealth of diversity on which he was keen to capitalise. His TAZ programme highlights rock, jazz, folk and hip-hop. His own showcase, fittingly dubbed Arno's Stoemp, promises new arrangements of his extensive rock repertoire, played by the TAZ band and a long list of international guest players.
Given a free hand to select a co-curator, Arno chose Goossens in order to underline the Brussels-Ostend axis and open the door to more international contributions. For his part, Goossens didn't hesitate to accept the invitation. "When Arno calls with a proposition," he confides, "you say ‘yes.'" The two had first collaborated in 2006 on a series of coordinated concerts in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Liège.
He's not an Ostender, but Goossens, too, appreciates the correspondence between the two cities. "Ostend shares a lot with Brussels," he observes. "Both are quite small yet cosmopolitan. Both are cities that look outward." For Goossens, this involves engaging artists from other parts of the world. When we spoke, he was in Kinshasa directing a cultural exchange programme. "Brussels is a Congolese city in certain ways," he says, referring to a colonial history that has exercised a profound cultural influence on both sides.
Perhaps Ostend can be a bit Congolese as well. One of Goossens' guests, Faustin Linyekula, will introduce the TAZ audience to ndombolo, a form of Congolese pop music in a dance/concert fusion called More More More...Future.
It remains to be seen whether Brussels-style cosmopolitanism will take root in Ostend's sandy soil. If it doesn't, it won't be for lack of trying. Theater Aan Zee is offering plenty of spectacles in addition to those hand-picked by the central guests. The TAZ OFF programme features street theatre, comedy, music and family events. The full schedule is quite an eyeful, stretching as it does across several pages, with performances numbered in the hundreds.
nieuwZwart
1-2 August, Kursaal Ostend
Thanks to central guest Jan Goossens, Theater Aan Zee has scored Flemish choreographer Wim Vandekeybus' nieuwZwart ahead of its opening in Brussels in September. Performed by members of his company Ultima Vez, it's an extraterrestrial excursion that is equal parts literature (text by Flemish author Peter Verhelst), live music (Mauro Pawlowski of dEUS) and dance. Goossens and Vandekeybus go way back. In fact, the former's first professional gig was as dramaturge for the latter.
Renée
3 August, Club Terminus
Arno discovered singer/songwriter Renée Sys in the bars of bohemian Brussels. Born and raised in rural Flanders, Sys came to the capital to study film but found that music may be her vocation. As she crafted her first screenplay, she began composing her first songs. Her approach is the same in either instance: one needs to tell a story. Born of thread-bare acoustic guitar arrangements, the songs are filled out with bass, cello, piano and percussion.
Viewmaster
3-17 August
City Hall
Before the advent of computer graphics, special effects required commitment. Pepper's ghost, a late 19th-century stage effect, required the construction of two identical rooms and a light-and-mirror apparatus capable of transposing one on top of the other in real time. Visual artist Laurent Liefooghe and choreographers Heike Langsdorf and Ula Sickle resurrect the illusion for this installation performance.
Soirée Jazz featuring the Toots Thielemans Quartet
4 August, Café Koer
Legendary jazz cat Toots Thielemans needs no introduction, but here's one anyway. The Brussels-born Thielemans invented the jazz harmonica some 70 years ago and has since remained its most distinguished proponent. He has collaborated with Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones and Paul Simon and appeared on the soundtracks of such classic films as Midnight Cowboy and The Getaway.
Flanders Today is a 
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