The idea for the Ghent Festival or ‘Gentse Feesten’ was first put forward in 1843 by the factory owners in the Ghent area. At that time, the various local district and parish fairs were then the only entertainment for many people. Times were hard and working conditions were fraught with misery. Hence, those fairs were celebrated to the full. Alcohol flowed freely and many made it into a challenge of not missing a single day of the fair. Of course, this led to noticeably high absenteeism among the workers. In those times, the well-to-do Ghent middle class were also on the lookout for a sizeable event that would bring many monied people to the city. Thus grew the idea for one annual event to replace all the individual local district fairs. With the gradual increase in alternative means of entertainment in the first half of this century, the Ghent Festival or Gentse Feesten is losing popularity until cabaret artist Walter De Buck and his mates of the Trefpunt rekindled the tradition. What began as a small-scale festival with a wonky stage on several beer crates, developed from the Sint-Jacobs square into one of Europe’s largest popular festivals, which is visited by around 180,000 people every day.


www.gentsefeesten.be