“Rendez-vous à Bruxelles” – Legato visits us
DISCOVER THE FESTIVAL VENUES AND PROGRAMME!
20 June 2024
Organised by Legato, this “Rendez-vous in Brussels” brought together around twenty people from choirs that are members of this European federation of LGBTQI+ choirs. Coming from Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Norway, the participants enjoyed a weekend in the capital of the European Union, two years before the official opening of the festival.
On Saturday morning, the festival organising team guided their guests through the centre of Brussels, discovering the main venues that will host Various Voices Brussels 2026. The tour began at the Central Station, to illustrate the accessibility of the venues. Under the station is the C12, which will host the dance evenings. A few steps away is the Madeleine, which will host concerts on Thursday afternoons. The tour continued at the Mont des Arts, where the festival’s outdoor stage will be set up.
The group then crossed the Parc du Mont des Arts to reach the site of the Various Voices Village, on the Place du Musée. Then it was on to Bozar, Brussels’ Palais des Beaux-Arts. Kris Schillemans, Corporate Events Manager, guided us through this building designed by architect Victor Horta 100 years ago, telling us lots of anecdotes about the history of the venue and in particular the Henri Le Boeuf room, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies. Our visitors were able to climb onto the stage, discover the backstage area, the Terarken space that we will be using for rehearsals and Salle M, the building’s other concert hall, which is currently being renovated. The tour of Brussels ended at Auditorium 490. Find out more about all these rooms here.
At lunchtime, our artistic director Simon Paco presented the artistic project to the participants: ceremonies, concerts and shows. He also explained how any choir wishing to take part in the festival would be able to do so, through concert opportunities or by singing the festival anthem “Let your heart be heard”. The festival programme, currently being developed, is available here. The organising team then provided some initial practical information, in particular on pricing. Registration for choirs opens on 1 September 2024. The question-and-answer session that followed gave participants the opportunity to clarify a number of points, and the festival organising team the chance to raise a number of issues that need to be addressed if the project is to continue to take shape.
