Downtown Brussels Summer Music Festival [August 12-21, 2011]

Brussels' Summer Festival 2011 has plenty of music concerts along with some side shows and accessible museums. Ten days in a row, the city will buzz with the energy of performances on various open-air stages - complemented by special events (including a burlesque show!) in selected indoor venues (BIP, Cafe Central, Cinematek, ...). And all of these events are accessible with a single 30 Euro pass - so you really can't go wrong (you an also buy a four (4) day pass for just 20 Euro).

Some of the bands I'd like to go and see... Ozark Henry, Hooverphonic, 'Alors On Danse' Stromae, Jamie Cullum (looking forward to his 'Please don't stop the Music' Rihanna cover), De La Soul (yep, the successful US hip-hop band), DJ Grazzhoppa (by now a Brussels' resident :-), Ann 'Are Friends Electric' Pierle, K's Choice (the also known as the Bettens Family), Balthazar (eclectic mix of electronic music from Kortrijk / Tournai of all places !) - and even some artists for the few french speaking people in our capital city: Yelle, Raphael, ...

The first night (Friday, 12) of the city festival showed a very good organisation (and almost no rain). Only item to be improved: way too few trashbins, resulting in empty cans and bottles just about everywhere outside the stage areas. I hope they'll fix this before the second night !

Hooverphonic at 7:30pm on a Friday was a bit early, but by Ozark Henry at 9pm the crowd at "The Paleizenplein" was complete. Note that even without buying a ticket you have a good view on the stage and the videoscreens from just outside the official festival area - and the sound is just fine ! Plenty of cocktail bars and not-so-typical snackbars (cupcakes, spring rolls, ...) are available between the podiums at the Kunstberg and WarandePark - enjoy !