In the first weekend of March, an estimated 10,000 beer lovers will descend on the small city of Sint- Niklaas in East Flanders for the seventh annual Zythos Beer Festival. Zythos is a national, volunteer organisation that works to promote and protect Belgian beer culture. The confederation of about 30 smaller groups also advocates for beer consumers by, for instance, calling for more accurate labelling of ingredients and for bottling dates.
When trees and flowers start to burst into colourful blossoms after a long, cold winter, we all start to feel alive again. In these rather cold, snowy days of February, spring still seems a long way off, but you need not wait that long for some colour therapy – just head to the Kalmthout Arboretum’s Hamamelis Festival.
A full contact, all-female sport on roller skates, derby is the closest I've ever come to violence. Between the hitting, fighting for position and inevitable face time on the ground, no one leaves the floor without feeling like they've just picked a fight with the biggest guy (or gal) in the room.
Westmalle: you know it as one of Belgium’s best brews, but it’s also the name of the village and the abbey in Antwerp province where the renowned Trappist beer is made.
The Westmalle Abbey was originally founded in 1794 by a group of Cistercian monks fleeing the French revolution. It’s now one of only seven abbeys in the world to produce Trappist beer. For a brewery to be blessed with the Trappist title, it has to meet strict standards. Monks must be involved in the brewing process, for example, and profits from sales have to go back into the company or to charity.
The demands and hectic pace of modern life can sometimes be exhausting. Research has shown that people benefit from spending time in nature, both physically and psychologically – hence the reason for the big push in recent years to establish “green space” in cities worldwide.
But you never have to drive more than an hour to get to one of the region’s natural areas, and Blankaart is Flanders at its most pristine. Located just south of Diksmuide, the nature reserve is a protected area of over 300 hectares.
Why visit an arboretum in winter? Because trees – especially this arboretum’s giant sequoias and coastal redwoods – look even more majestic when covered with frost or snow.
It just so happens – and bear with us here – that fresh air, exercise and beautiful scenery are a cure for the post-holiday blues. It’s a scientific fact that getting those endorphins going improves the mood.
In our quest for a happy Flanders, we welcome you to our four-part series on winterwandelingen (winter walks) around the region. This week: the beautiful (especially in winter) Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen nature reserve in Ghent.
Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen
Because of its reliance on the coal industry in the first half of the century, the province of Limburg had tended to lag behind the rest of Flanders in economic stability and innovation. Finally, the region has designated education and technology as key new areas for development. Hasselt U was originally founded as Limburgs Universitair Centrum in 1971 in Diepenbeck, a small town outside Hasselt. The university’s focus was initially on undergraduate education in medicine and the sciences.
The first edition of this biennial festival in January of 2006 was an instant success. Wintervuur is staged in a different part of Antwerp, bringing the crowds together in a new place each time for dozens of cultural excursions (many free), walks and gastronomic delicacies. Besides attending performances in nooks and crannies of the neighbourhood – both hidden and popular – festival goers get the chance to mingle and savour seasonal festivities.
It’s time to buy the presents. This energises some people and makes others want to go into hibernation until spring – or at least until after the holidays. These people were our guiding lights as we went into our Gift Guide this year: how do we make holiday shopping less stressful? we asked ourselves. One idea stood out among the rest: stay away from the “shopping centre”. In Flanders, that can mean a mall – like Antwerp’s Wijnegem Shopping Centre or Brussels’ City 2. But that can also mean the dreaded “shopping street”. You know what we mean.
Flanders Today is a 
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