Gordel will return with a new name and bigger programme
The Gordel – the annual walking and cycling tour of the municipalities surrounding Brussels – will be back this year with a new name and in a new form, with concerts and an increased offer of sports activities, the Flemish government has announced.
The September event promises more tourist, music and sports activities
Last year’s Gordel – the name means “belt” in Dutch – was billed as the last and attracted only 29,500 participants, some 50,000 fewer than in 2010. While organised by the sports agency Bloso and aimed at family activities, the event was also a statement that the communities surrounding Brussels are part of Flanders. Cyclists often found their way strewn with tacks, street-signs were switched around, and last year the council of Sint-Genesius-Rode, which is mainly French-speaking, declined to give permission for the event to start from the municipality.
The government’s plan continues to stress the family-oriented and recreational basis of the event and leaves open the possibility that the Gordel’s successor (a name has still to be decided on) might last longer than the traditional one day.
The sporting activities could be extended to include running, sports minister Philippe Muyters suggested. The event will also be extended to as many as 40 municipalities in a broad circle around Brussels. One thing, meanwhile, remains the same: The event, like its predecessor, will take place on the first Sunday in September.
A separate but related event, the Gordel for schools, will also go ahead in June as usual.
