Balkan countries will also be represented during the Vaux-Hall Summer 2019 through the new Brussels! Apéro & Balkan cultural evenings program which is organized by the 1001 Valises asbl (organizers of the Balkan Trafik, a landmark festival in Brussels).

Starting from the 28th June until 9th August, thematic Fridays will be held in the Vaux-Hall, each dedicated to one of the communities from the South-Eastern Europe. Expect a lot of activities – country presentations, concerts (DJs & bands), dance workshops, animations, movie screenings, expos, dance performances… a wonderful summer immersion into different countries and Brussels’ diaspora from this region!

During each of the Friday evenings, the exposition of Balkan Trafik comics/cartoons and the video story of Balkan Trafik will be shown on the big screen. You will also be able to taste great wines from Bovin/North Macedonia at the L’Entrepote bar in the Vaux-Hall.

Full program of the Balkan cultural evenings:

28th June – Serbia.
18h>18h30 DJ Set electro Balkan Le Triporteur
18h30>19h15 Dance workshop – Dance du Mudriam School of dance: Rythme India
19h30>20h Workshop dance by Izvor
20h15>21h00 Live: Izvor troupe de danse et de musique
21h00>22h15 La promesse (The Promise), FILM projection in the presence of Dusan Gajic, the director
+/- 22h15>23h00 DJ Set electro Balkan Le Triporteur
Photo exhibition « Ivo Andric à Bruxelles » thanks to the Serbian Embassy

5th July – Bosnia & Herzegovina
18h>18h30 DJ Set electro Balkan – Gaetano Fabri
18h30>19h15 Dance workshop – Dance du Mudriam School of dance: Rythme Roman havasi
19h30>20h00 Live: The Old Bridge; duo guitar (the Roots of the legendary Mostar Sevdah reunion)
20h00>20h30 DJ Set electro Balkan Gaetano Fabri
20h30>21h15 The Old Bridge
21h15>23h: DJ Set electro Balkan Gaetano Fabri

12th July – Bulgarian evening
18h>19h30 DJ Set electro Balkan Gaetano Fabri
19h30>20h Workshop du club de danses bulgares ‘Horo à Bruxelles’
20h15>21h00 Live: Na Horoto v Bruxelles », Maria Ivanova & Horo à Bruxelles, Ivan Ivanov quartet
21h>21h30 Live; Ivan Ivanov quartet
21h30>23h00 DJ Set electro Balkan
Expos: The aroma of Bulgaria, The Bulgarian Alphabet, both with the support of Bulgarian Embassy and Bulgarian Cultural association: Staneva Mila

19th July – Brass band, Balkan Dance & North Macedonia evening
18h>18h45 DJ Set electro Balkan Gaetano Fabri
19h00>20h00 Dance workshop – Dance du Mudriam School of dance: Rythme Balkan (Serbia, Macedonia, Romania…)
20h15>22h00 Live concert: The fabulous brass band- Kadrievi Orkestar – Dancing mix of Gypsy, Macedonian, Greek, Serbian and Turkish folk music
Orkestar Braka Kadrievi is a Macedonian Gypsy Brass Band, known from the soundtrack of Emir Kusturica’s “Time of the Gypsies”.
22h00>23h00 DJ Set electro Balkan Gaetano Fabri

26th July – Romania
18h>19h30 DJ Set electro Balkan Gaetano Fabri
19h30>20h Workshop Romanian dance Vatra Strabuna
20h15>21h30 Live concert, Vatra Strabuna & very special guests, exceptional duet “nai & viola” with Raluca Patuleanu & Tatiana Asargiu
21h30>23h DJ Set electro Balkan with DJ Gaetano Fabri

2nd August – Albanian evening
18h>18h30 DJ Set electro Balkan DJ Eagle, 100% Albanian & Balkan music
18h30>19h15 Dance workshop – Dance du Mudriam School of dance: Rythme: Tzigane Russe
19h30>21h00 Live concert, Gjini Family
21h>23h00 DJ Set electro Balkan DJ Eagle, 100% Albanian & Balkan music

9th August – Roma evening
18h>18h30 DJ Set electro Balkan, DJ Soumnakai
18h30>19H15 Dance workshop – Dance du Mudriam School of dance: Rythme: Dance with your heart
19h30>20h00 Workshop dance, live music + Quatuor Brussel’s Roma artists: accordeon, cymbalum, contrebasse & violon, chant & dance.
20h15>21h30 Live concert, Quatuor Brussel’s Roma artists: accordeon, cymbalum, contrebasse et violon, chant & dance.
21h30>23h00 DJ Set electro Balkan, DJ Soumnakai, the best of the Roma vinyl records!

Slight changes to the program are possible so we advise you to follow the Balkan Trafik facebook page for the latest updates on each of the thematic evenings.

The Balkan evenings program is organized thanks to numerous institutional partners such as the City of Brussels, Mudriam School of dance and their motivated and professional teachers, Izvor, Gjini Family, Vatra Strabuna, the Brussel’s Association Cuturelle Bulgare, Kadrievi familly, the film director and journalist Dusan Gajic, the Bulgarian Embassy, the Serbian Embassy, Stef Karo…

Since 2017, the City of Brussels has made Vaux-Hall its original function by providing a cultural and family program during the summer weekends under the name of Vaux-Hall Summer. In 2019, the summer programming started on May 31st and you can consult their full program here.

Did you know?

In 1913, in the Brussels Park, Vaux Hall was built as a place of outdoor entertainment surrounded by a covered gallery with rotunda, built trellis structure in a Louis XVI style. It was designed to house the “high-level” festivities even before the birth of Belgium as the country. The term Vaux-Hall in fact comes from English. It dates back to the manor near London which was occupied by a certain Falke de Bréauté in the 13th century. Over time, the name changed from “Falke’s Hall” to “Fox Hall” and then “Vaux Hall”. It was abandoned for a long time but fortunately four years of careful restoration conducted by the City of Brussels brought this venue back to life so that it can be enjoyed by all residents and visitors of our city.

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More than ever, Balkan Trafik! is a European festival that showcases every aspect of the contemporary and traditional creativity of the Balkans. By introducing the public to the diversity of its artists, whether emerging or of international renown, every event will be an invitation to an exchange of experience and shared moments of emotion and celebration. In keeping with the times, the programming is free of prejudice, breaking down barriers between genres to satisfy the curiosity of festival-goers as they discover new means of expression.

A major innovation at this year’s festival is the participation of VK concerts which will be hosting a number of concerts. True to its reputation for pioneering new musical trends, on April 26th the festival is presenting a program of 100% urban music with a concert by the electro-hip-hop band Subcarpaţi, a Balkan Beats© evening, a live DJ set from Tagada and Robert Soko with special guest the Serbian trumpet player Marko Markovic, and Urban Chapter II, an event that puts the spotlight on the best hip-hop artists from the Balkans and Belgium with the presence of Odilon, Frenkie, Elinel, Gloria Boateng, PRIMITIV, Seven, Le D Marksonn, AFO & Psihotrop, etc.

On Saturday April 27th we will be immersing ourselves in the heritage of the Balkans at BOZAR, the Centre for Fine Arts, with many established artists, happenings with dance troupes, musicians, and traditional singers. A legendary billing with the Marko Markovic Brass Band and Boban Markovic and, amongst others, Romano Drom who are celebrating their 20th anniversary, Divanhana & Suzan Kardeş, the Tcha Limberger & trio, Bernard Orchestra.

Cinema, theatre and literature will also be celebrated. As regards cinema, a selection from the “Dealing with the Past” section of the Sarajevo Film Festival will be screened. « Dealing with the Past » is a section created three years ago by the Sarajevo Festival that proposes films which can foster dialogue, awaken consciences and promote peace in a region that is still deeply affected by the Balkan wars. Of the six films, Nebojša Slijepčević’s « Srebenka » was, notably, a prize winner at the Vision of the Real festival and in Sarajevo. This powerful documentary deals with the painful heritage of the war on young generations. On stage, the theatre piece ‘EXIT’ (24.04) will be performed. In the realms of literature, on 25 April the public can meet emerging writers from the former Yugoslavia (Jelena Lengold, Faruk Šehić).

On Sunday, Brussels’ Grand Place will, for the eighth time, be the stage for the Giant Horo, the traditional group dance of the Balkans, a fitting way to bring an end to these five days of celebrations and encounters.

Throughout the festival, artist in residence Rikardo will be working on a large format fresco in central Brussels, as the artist Bozko did in 2018, as a part of the City of Brussels’ Urban Trail.

More than a festival, Balkan Trafik! is a plea for the energy and bravery that is so characteristic of the artists from this region of South-East Europe!

Further details about the event can be found here.

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For more than 10 years, Balkan Trafik has put Balkan culture on the map in Brussels. Each year, the emphasis is placed on a specific art form. This 12th edition focuses on street art during an ‘Urban Chapter’ in collaboration with Lezarts Urbains.

For this occasion, the City of Brussels has proposed inviting an artist from the Balkans to create a mural on a facade of the city as part of the Street Art Trail. The Bulgarian artist Bozko was chosen for this. He is best known for his enormous works of art and his world filled with imagined, strange but cute characters. The street art wall was realized on the facade of a private home. Last year, the owners presented themselves as candidates after the City’s appeal to owners to include their facade(s) in the Street Art Trail.

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Constantly evolving, Balkan Trafik! has moved forward at the same swift pace as progress in the Balkans.  More than 400 artists from every country of South-Eastern Europe, covering all musical styles, will appear on 5 stages. This year, Bulgaria will play a starring role, providing around 100 artists from both Sofia and Plovdiv.  Plovdiv, the country’s second largest city, is home to the prestigious Academy of music, dance and fine arts, and has been named European capital of culture for 2019.

The whole program will be flavoured with Balkan Trafik’s trademark – a unique atmosphere where lots of artists jam together in an exotic setting.  Candan Erçetin, the Turkish singer of Albanian origin, will open the festival on Thursday 19 April.

On Friday 20 April, pride of place will be given to a new generation of artists engaged in cultural and social change. « Urban Chapter » will showcase the best of urban sounds from Bosnia-Herzegovina (Frenkie), Serbia (Marcelo), Bulgaria (SkilleR beatboxing), Hungary (Benji Harvath’s amazing slams) and Greece (12 os Pithikos). From the dynamic Belgian music scene, they’ll meet with Hexaler, Youssef Swat and Convok, among other headliners like DJ Odilon, all providing unique sets of beatbox, slam, hip-hop and urban dance. Also performing will be Dubioza Kolektiv, a well-known Bosnian dub group with politically engaged lyrics, and Džambo Aguševi Orchestra’s brass band, representing the best of modern and traditional music. Finally, Mitsoura, a Roma singer from Hungary with her unmistakably unique sound, will premier her latest creation.

On Saturday 21 April, a diverse medley of styles and sounds, unique to Balkan Trafik!, will take to the stage. There’s klezmer music with the unrivalled Amsterdam Klezmer Band accompanied by the Hungarian Tambura band, Söndörgő, and the acclaimed Romanian brass band, Fanfare Ciocărlia. Living legends like Savina Yannatou, the embodiment of Albanian iso polyphony and Bulgarian and Serbian polyphonies will also perform.

Finally, on Sunday 22 April, Brussels’ Grand-Place will host a giant ‘horo’ dance, the traditional communal dance of the Balkans and the Middle East. Open to all, the event will celebrate the diversity of Belgium’s capital.

In addition to these highlights, Balkan Trafik! will offer dozens of other concerts, art installations, several exhibitions and lectures.

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