The city of Aalst in East Flanders will go ahead with this year’s Carnival celebrations, but the tone will be far more subdued this year because of continuing Covid-10 restrictions.
The annual Carnival is scheduled this year to take place from Sunday 27 February until Tuesday 1 March. And while the city is expected to be emerging from the strictest Covid restrictions by that weekend, the shadow of the pandemic will still hang over the celebrations.
The carnival was criticized in the years before the outbreak of COVID-19 for displaying people dressed as caricatures of orthodox Jews. UNESCO stated that, “The satirical spirit of the Aalst Carnival and freedom of expression cannot serve as a screen for manifestations of hatred”.
The City Council of Aalst decided to withdraw the carnival from the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity before being delisted.
Back in December, the unthinkable happened when the security cell of Aalst announced the 2022 Carnival was cancelled because of the impossibility of going forward in the virological situation existing at the time.
“It was very difficult for all of us that we couldn't celebrate carnival last year,” said Aalst mayor Christophe D’Haese at the time. “We eagerly looked forward to the next edition, which would be an unprecedented party. In the past weeks and months, I have really done everything I can to keep all chances open for a festive edition of Aalst Carnival in February 2022. At no point did I want to throw in the towel too soon, knowing full well the importance of carnival for thousands of Aalst residents.”
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Yesterday (Wednesday) the city’s security council came together to discuss the changing situation: the city will switch in the coming days from code red to the lesser security of code orange.
But for the time being – and frankly, no change is expected at this late date – the main Carnival as we all know it is cancelled for 2022, although smaller-scale events will be allowed, and as the change of status approaches even more may be permitted.
“Just to be clear: Aalst is not organising carnival. Everything that will happen during that period will come from the residents themselves," D'Haese told the VRT.
Among the measures under consideration: an extra police presence to keep the situation under control; increased readiness in first-aid posts in the city to prevent emergency cases over-running hospitals; security presence in shopping streets to cope with potential problems, and; increased security in public buildings to deal with potential public protests.
