Open Airs in Brussels: the role and positioning of Brussels By Night

Following the COVID crisis, which severely weakened the nightlife sector and had serious consequences for youth and their mental health, the City of Brussels’ willingness to support a sector that is essential not only to the cultural economy but also to social life—by enabling the reclaiming of public space by the scene during the summer season—should be noted.
The City is facing a growing demand for event organization and, as stated in its framework document, aims to manage this phenomenon in public space by ensuring a balanced distribution across the main iconic locations of the City of Brussels, enabling peaceful coexistence with local residents, and guaranteeing an adequate quality of life across its territory.

In this context, the City decided to launch a call for applications to regulate requests and meet the specifications it has set, through a “jury.”
Within this jury, the opinion of Brussels By Night was advisory and non-binding. The final decision rested with the College, and operators were informed of this. Our organization only provides information on applications, particularly highlighting structures that may not be identified by the City’s administrations. We received no subsidy for issuing its advisory opinion for the summer 2026 season in 1000 Brussels.

Out of 25 operators who submitted applications for the summer 2026 period, 20 had their requests approved by the City of Brussels.

Brussels By Night does not advocate for a single festival, but rather for the importance of open-air events in general. The Brussels Open Air Festival was created out of the City of Brussels’ desire to more professionally structure the organization of open-air events on its territory, while promoting the diversity of the local cultural and music scene. It is coordinated by Brussels By Night, but the organization of each open-air event remains entirely managed by the operators. A call for applications is published several months before the event, with clearly defined criteria and a structured framework for organization and support.

Authorization for this festival is also part of a regulated process: Brussels By Night submits an application to use public space, and each participating operator must go through commissions related to safety and site implementation.
Support from the City of Brussels allows for significant financial aid to be granted to selected operators.

Our work mainly focuses on coordination and the structural and operational work of the team, including meetings with political representatives and administrations, and annual strategy, safety commissions, development and management of the call for projects, selection and jury process, coordination and production, particularly to support operators who are sometimes non-professional (one of the BOAF’s core missions), management of shared resources (bar, cleaning, sanitary facilities, etc.), ticketing management, post-event administrative follow-up, and all communication related to the project.

At the proposal of Brussels By Night, the BOAF selection jury in 2024 and 2025 was composed of seven entities, with BBN representing only one-seventh (14.29%). This configuration was specifically designed to avoid domination by a single actor and to ensure balanced governance. During the two previous editions, projects led by structures such as Corne de Gazelle, Vostock, 21AM, Trendy, Kapla, as well as Vortex, Vollenbak, and 155bpm, illustrate the BOAF’s commitment to representing Brussels’ diversity and opening access to organizations of all sizes, including smaller ones. Over two editions, the festival enabled 16 operators to organize large-scale open-air events. Of these 16, 7 were members of Brussels By Night.

The jury was composed (on both occasions) of Brussels By Night, Vi.be, Brussels Major Event, the City of Brussels, two culture/nightlife experts, and visit.brussels. Two additional experts are expected to be added in 2026.

In the long term, the objective is to go beyond the sole perimeter of the City of Brussels. Through this type of initiative, BOAF aims to encourage other municipalities to strengthen their commitment to promoting open-air events, while current concentration remains very high in the 1000 Brussels area. This dynamic is one of the festival’s priority development axes for the coming years (unless it is replaced by a larger fund dedicated to collectives and structures organizing open-air events during the summer season).

The justification of subsidies was validated by the City of Brussels for 2024 and 2025, in accordance with procedures applicable to any non-profit receiving this type of funding.

As an actor in the cultural and event sector, our natural ambition is to see the sector offer free events in public space. However, since COVID, organizing an open-air event involves significantly greater logistical, regulatory, and financial constraints than indoor events, whether recurring or not: increased production and programming costs (artist fees have “exploded” over the past five years), management of large crowds, reinforced security measures, signage, cleanliness, waste management, sufficient temporary sanitary facilities, quality sound systems, energy, care measures, as well as communication costs that have become essential to reach audiences. Added to this are increased audience expectations and competition from other cities and festivals, both in Belgium and abroad.

In a context of free and open access (without barriers), ticketing revenue is nonexistent and bar income is significantly reduced. Yet, for usable sites (in terms of safety) within the 1000 Brussels territory, the overall cost of a professionally managed event can easily reach several tens of thousands of euros. Given this reality, two models currently ensure the economic viability of projects while guaranteeing public safety and operator stability:

• substantial and widespread public financial support for ALL open-air events within the regional territory (subsidies or a global fund), a model we advocate for in the long term,
• paid access by most operators, which does not prevent maintaining free access for those who wish (although safety requirements often lead authorities to impose at least minimal barriers).

Brussels By Night has no decision-making power regarding event authorizations in public space in Brussels, and we do not wish to have any. We gladly encourage the City of Brussels to expand the composition of this advisory committee in the future in order to achieve even more accurate representation of the scene.

Brussels By Night’s mission is to support the sector and to give visibility to, promote, and accompany nightlife and club culture in all its diversity, as demonstrated by the actions undertaken since 2021 and the types of structures that have joined the network. The non-profit remains available to answer questions, relay information to relevant structures, and support the scene. Being a member of the network means formalizing support for this collective dynamic and benefiting from it in a more regular and targeted way.