Cultural Events

The Rock Werchter music festival has won the ILMC Arthur Award for best festival for the 5th time in its history. It was Flemish festival organiser Herman Schueremans who received the award at a ceremony on 9 March at the Savoy Hotel in London. Flemish festival Rock Werchter saw off competition from Cornbury (UK), Roskilde Festival (Denmark), Exit (Serbia) and the Paléo Festival (Switzerland).

In 2013 the organization ‘Vlamingen in de Wereld’ (Flemings Living Abroad) will be celebrating its 50 years of existence. The festive year will start 4 July 2013 with an Expatparliament and an After Work Abroad Party, and will end with a grand finale on 12 July 2014 in and around the Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp.

From 24 May 2013 until 2014 the exhibition ‘Home, Land and Sea: Art in the Netherlands 1600-1800’, featuring a number of Flemish paintings, can be visited at the Manchester Art Gallery.

With the support of the Representation of the Government of Flanders in the United Kingdom, the Flemish architectural firms Architecten DVVT, Office KGDVS and 51N4E will be participating at Atlas of the Unbuilt World, the British Council’s international exhibition for the London Festival of Architecture 2013. It will take place at the Bartlett School of Architecture in central London.

The Royal Ballet of Flanders is celebrating the centenary of the birth of the great twentieth-century composer Benjamin Britten with 'Britten Dances' at the Aldeburgh Festival on 20 and 21 June. The programme includes his original compositions as well as pieces inspired by his music.

As a part of "Sadler's Sampled – Made at Sadler’s Wells", Flemish choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui will perform Faun on 22 and 23 June.

Flemish choreographer and dancer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker returns to Sadler’s Wells with one of her most fascinating and inspiring choreographic works to date.

The Flemish jazz six-piece Hijaz will be performing on 5 July at the Rich Mix venue in London as part of the Shubbak Festival.

The Antwerp based three-piece Triggerfinger will be performing on 6 July in Hyde Park, London during the British Summer Time-festival as a supporting act for The Rolling Stones. For The Stones it will be, with one day difference, exactly 44 years ago that they performed in Hyde Park. Triggerfinger is scheduled to perform on one of the three side stages, together with Splashh, Kimberley Anne, Loom, Will Joseph Cook and Whinnie Williams.

The Flemish theatre director Inne Goris will be directing all the events within “Once Upon a Story” of the Manchester International Festival from 12 till 21 July. The events are for young people and families. Inne Goris’ work crosses the boundaries of theatre, dance, performance and visual art. The programme’s arresting music is by Dominique Pauwels.

If you know of a cultural event in the UK with a connection to Flanders, please send it to Joren Bailliere.