The 16th edition of Balkan Trafik, a celebration of Balkan music from traditional to folk, jazz to punk, is coming to Belgium, landing in Brussels on 29 April and ending on 1 May.
This is the first time in two years that the event will be held in person following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions this year.
The four-day open-air festival will bring together more than 150 different artists and musicians. The event will be a four-day celebration spread across several locations: the Place de Brouckère and Grand Place in central Brussels from 29 April to 1 May, as well as at the Delta cultural space in Namur, on Thursday 28 April.
The Balkans have a rich and widely varied music culture. The festival will showcase the best of traditional Balkan music, as well as new and introducing flavours from different countries.
In attendance, the biggest brass bands from Serbia and Northern Macedonia, a “gipsy punk” group from Hungary, a Taraf folk group from Romania and members of the masterful tradition of “Roma” jazz.
The Giant Horo on the Grand Place in 2018 Credit: Milena Strange/Balkan Trafik
On the closing day of the festival, the 10th edition of the “Giant Horo” will bring together troupes of dancers from across the Balkan region, who will dance together in unison across the Grand Place of Brussels. This finale will be open to the public and free.
To commemorate the occasion, the festival’s organisers have invited talented graffiti artists from across the Balkan region to come to Brussels. The artists have sprayed a series of large murals and designs on buildings across the capital as part of the PARCOURS Street Art project launched by the City of Brussels.
Balkan Trafik Street Art - ojoMAGico from Balkan Trafik on Vimeo.
A taste of the Balkans
Beyond the dancing and the music, the festival is also offering a line-up of exhibitions, debates, street art and gastronomy.
This year’s festival will feature a photo exhibition on the Bosnian tradition of “Sicanje/bocanje/križićanje”, a traditional form of Bosnian Christian tattooing, typically performed on women.
The photos, from Prozor-Rama in Bosnia-Herzegovina, will explore the art form and the local culture.
As with most years, the event will feature a colourful selection of authentic Balkan food. Balkan Bazaar brings together ten associations to bring the Bazaar feel to Brussels. Wine, Serbo-Croatian and Roma gastronomy will be at the heart of this year's culinary experience.
Organiser and producer of the event, TV director and documentary filmmaker Nicolas Wieërs, hopes that this year’s festival will be better than ever.
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“We are super excited to start this 16th edition of the festival after two complicated years…our leitmotif has been to bring communities together, to overcome prejudices by showing what brings us all together: culture and art,” Wieërs said.
To help visitors navigate the large festival, the organisers have created a free application with all the details, as well as complementary documentaries and other multimedia projects.
A full program of the events, and importantly their location, as the festival is spread across several locations, can be viewed online.
Tickets are still available for sale on the organiser’s website. 1 day tickets cost €25 and 2-day combo tickets are on sale for €45.
