Wintervuur

Keeping Hoboken’s home fires burning

If you thought the only way to ride out the post-holiday blues was by staying couch-ridden under a blanket, you presumably have yet to hear of Wintervuur (Winter Fire). This multi-faceted festival is an ideal occasion to warm up and ring in the new year with a dose of culture. After successfully overtaking the Scheldt docks, Deurne and Linkeroever in past years, the fourth edition takes place on the southern edge of Antwerp in the Hoboken district during the second week of the Christmas holidays.

Home base is Park Broydenborg, which will be cast under a cosy folkloric spell that nostalgically recalls times of nomadic circus villages and flirts with the district’s mix of industry and nature. The festival boasts a strong line-up of theatre, international circus acts and live music from a travelling spiegeltent. A family affair, there’s something on offer for all ages, from a quirky interactive kids concert to an eccentric self-reflective forest walk and poetic river boat tour.

The winter festival kicks off with a celebration of Hoboken’s local talent, including fire installations by special effects experts Divi-Divi and a musical feast by the Rumble Jumble Orchestra. The week that follows offers a non-stop plethora of performance on and around the blazing “Wintervuurplein”.

Most evenings, the circus tent is taken over by international acrobatic act Le Grand C (pictured), during which acrobats explore the boundaries of the human body in a modern take on circus techniques. The Crazy Cinématographe, meanwhile, takes you back in time with screenings of old short films accompanied by live piano.

An impressive range of theatre on location takes you to a parish hall, an industrial warehouse or to a narrative on the 16th floor of an apartment block. Flemish performers Josse Depauw, Eric Thielmans, Rudy Trouvé and Wim Lots put on Rops, snare et les autres, an act bringing an intriguing monologue together with sound and image from an orangery in Park Sorghvliedt.

Hoboken-based Comp.Marius open their doors and invites the public to listen to their unique rendition of Samuel Beckett’s All That Fall over a cup of onion soup, while local cultural centre UiThuis present a youth-theatre project of the powerful tale of King Gilgamesh from within a fort.

Back at Wintervuur square, the spiegeltent is the place to grab a bite to eat while it bursts with music. Thé Dansant presents nostalgic afternoon concerts of jazz and swing, while Café Chantant takes over after 22.00 with free concerts, including the jazzy folk music trio Tape Cuts Tape and the melancholic melodies of The Bony King of Nowhere.

If coming from the heart of Antwerp, hop on the Festina Lente ship at the old fortress Het Steen for an hour-long ride along the river to Hoboken. It’s a poetic adventure that continues with a guided walk to the festival grounds accompanied by live guitar.

Of course, such a programme wouldn’t go out with anything but a bang. On Sunday evening, a free concert in the circus tent mixes up musical styles, with a performance by retro lounge group The Valerie Solanas and a tribute to Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack by Flemish singer Will Ferdy. After a guest poet, La Panika closes off the jam-packed week with infectious Balkan sounds, a last chance to get some fire in your heels and finish the holidays off in style.