A big help to the uninitiated is Tom Schoepen’s beautiful coffee-table style biography, published on the first anniversary of his father’s death. As the youngest child of the family of five, he harboured many questions about the early days.
By the time Tom was born, Bobbejaan’s performances weren’t the novelty they once were, and the 1970s anti-American attitude had overtaken the once so-popular cowboy image. It was only later, as he browsed through his father’s extensive archives, did Tom fully realise his father’s world-renowned originality.
Van Broeckhoven, 25, adds the title to his European championship wins of 2009 and 2010 and his fourth place worldwide last year. He is the first Belgian to win the world title and the first European in 11 years. And that’s despite a knee injury in the first of the competition’s seven stages, which took place in Vietnam. He then went on to win three of the next five stages and place second twice – enough to give him an unassailable lead before going entering the finals on the island of Sylt, Germany, last September.
De Stenehei, Dessel (Antwerp province)
24-26 June
➟➟ www.graspop.be
Highlights:
Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas
Priest, Slipknot, Rob Zombie (pictured),
Mastodon, Journey, Foreigner, Monster
Magnet
"There was so much beer here," says Decostere (pictured), who briefly considered closing Sint-Pietershof. "And then there were the clients."
The beer list, focusing on micro- to mid-size breweries, features selections from the likes of De Ranke, Cantillon and De Dolle. Buried deep in the cellars of Sint-Pietershof are hundreds, if not thousands, of vintage bottles. All of these are off-menu items, and many of them date back as far as the late 1980s.
For the big spring edition in Hasselt (23/5 Versuz), Bruges (24/5 Entrenous), Ghent (25/5 Culture Club), Leuven (26/5 3Hoog), Brussels (27/5 Havana Club) and Antwerp (28/5 Café d’Anvers) a few rules apply. Show up by 19.00, pay €10 and hand over your clothes to a team of stylists. They’ll reward each item with “swap dots” – up to four. The more clothes you bring, the more dots you get.
Around 20.00, browse the racks with clothes, try them on, then hang a “wanted” sign on the items you fancy. Should there be several girls after the same item, you use your swap dots to bid.
Sounds good, right? Then head to the awesomely named Bowling Stones in Wemmel, Flemish Brabant, for its big birthday bash on 7 May. As Benelux's biggest bowling alley turns three, join them for cocktails, a party and ... bowling.
Besides the 36 bowling lanes are snooker tables, table football, a lounge bar, internet cafe and a big restaurant called N9ne, which boasts a terrace with an excellent view. Catering to the younger set, Bowling Stones knows how to entertain.
Cutting Edge spares no efforts to keep you up-to-date. Editor-in-chief is Kevin Major, one of Flanders best-known radio voices; he reads the news on national radio station VRT.
For the fourth year running, Cutting Edge is staging a multi-genre bash the day before Easter in Antwerp's Petrol club, with music, film, comedy and disco bars.
Easter Edge gathers a selection of artists who have received great reviews on Cutting Edge. Headliner this year is Antwerp-based pop-rock band A Brand (pictured), whose brand new album, Future You, got four stars from Cutting Edge.
This brief history is related to me by the manager, André, who I found enjoying a drink at the bar. "It's not particularly a student place today," says André, who was born and brought up in Leuven.
The customers range from 20-somethings to parents with young kids in tow to an elderly couple in the corner, who didn't look at all out of place. The cafe's atmosphere is welcoming and unpretentious, "like a comfortable pair of jeans", says my own drinking companion.
Get your hands on the real map (which comes in a rather unhandy but impressive size of about a square metre!) or browse the cafeplan.be website for a glance at all the places that serve drinks in the pentagon. All bars are described in a few lines and have basic information on what's on tap, opening hours and special characteristics.
She's quick to point out that it isn't about the nudity, but the teasing and art of seduction. She is a burlesque dancer and the artistic director for LaRiva Follies, a dance and dinner theatre just launched in Belgium. Held at the retro-styled La Riva event centre in Antwerp on the first Sunday of the month until June, each show centres on a different theme.
Flanders Today is a 
-14°C / -4°C
