May 2009

Bruges Chocolaté Festival
01 to 04 May 2009
More information will be available later on at www.choco-late.be Sign up for the newsletter at: newsletter@choco-late.be or contact the organisers Tel:0032 16 46 32 58 for further information about this festival

July 2009

Tongeren Seven-yearly Coronation Celebrations
5, 7, 10 & 12 July 2009
Tongeren, the oldest town in Belgium, is proud of being the cradle of Christianity in the and it was here that pilgrims travelled to in the Middle Ages. In 1890 the seven-yearly Coronation Celebrations were organized for the first time. 2009 will see the seventeenth edition. The highlights are the four processions and the four evening plays, in which more than 3,000 Tongeren citizens take part. This makes the coronation procession the largest procession in Belgium. The last celebrations in 2002 drew more than 600,000 visitors from home and abroad.

An exhibition at the Provincial Gallo-Roman Museum entitled ‘The path of Christianity’ will run in parallel to the Coronation Celebrations. It deals with the spread of early Christianity from Palestine to our region. www.kroningsfeesten.be

April 2010

Ghent Floralies
16 to 25 April 2010
Ghent Expo
This major Flower festival, akin to the Chelsea Flower Show, is held every five years in the city of the begonia. With a plant and flower nursery, world-famous flower arrangement artists and over 500 exhibitions to view, it is a must visit for flower enthusiasts and novices alike. It is advisable to pre-book group tickets in advance when they go on sale. Watch this space. For more details on this event call 00 32 52 25 10 11. For background on the event and a chance to glimpse at previous shows visit: www.floralien.be

Spring 2010

Dendermonde Ros Beiaard Procession
(exact dates tba)
The Ros Beiaard procession has its origins in a medieval legend of four orphans. Beiaard is a wooden horse of gigantic proportions and is carried through Dendermonde by a guild of bearers. The procession is only held once every ten years, which is why every procession is a veritable celebration and taking leave of the horse invariably proves very hard to do. Beiaard the horse and the three giants of Dendermonde even feature on the UNESCO world heritage list. For more details on this evenmt, call 00 32 52-25 10 11 or e-mail: stadsbestuur@dendermonde.be

August 2012

Pageant of the Golden Tree
(exact dates tba)
The five-yearly Pageant of the Golden Tree was first introduced in 1958 to commemorate the marriage of the English Princess Margaret of York and the Count of Flanders, Charles the Bold. At 16.00 hrs a colourful spectacle, with some two-thousand participants, giants and floats sets off through the streets of Bruges, attracting crowds from home and abroad. The last Pageant took place 25 and 26 August 2007. www.brugge.be