What we did

Brussels By Night had been warning publicly about mounting structural pressures - through advocacy work, media interventions, and repeated alerts on social networks and in the press throughout 2024 and early 2025. Faced with this accelerating sequence of closures, BBN chose to escalate its response: shifting from ongoing advocacy to a large-scale communication and policy mobilisation plan.

Brussels Open Air Festival stands as a rare and ambitious initiative in today’s European urban landscape. At a time when many cities are becoming increasingly cautious about outdoor events due to concerns around noise, safety, and public order, Brussels has chosen a different path : one that recognises regulated, well-structured open-air culture as a legitimate and valuable use of public space.

A symbol of European club culture suddenly silent, dozens of jobs at risk, and international media questioning the future of nightlife in the capital. The situation quickly escalated into a broader debate on the coexistence of nightlife, urban living, and cultural policy, and the need for a modern, coherent regulatory framework.

In 2025, the Belgian cultural and event sectors were confronted to the proposed increase of VAT on ticketing from 6% to 12%. For nightlife venues, festivals, and event organisers already operating under mounting financial pressure, the announcement threatened to further destabilise the ecosystem. In response, Brussels By Night (BBN) took the initiative to coordinate and launch a sector-wide reaction note.

In the fall of 2021, after a year and a half of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic and following the resumption of indoor activities, unacceptable and reprehensible behavior took place in the Ixelles cemetery neighborhood, triggering the “Balance Ton Bar” movement. This led to a political engagement from the City of Brussels launching the "Nothing Without My Consent" campaign with Brussels By Night.

Since 2022, we strengthened our offer and harmonised our way of working on the topic of harm reduction. It started with an overall collaboration plan to engage the effort from the sector, together with administrations, associations and experts, to the redaction of a global protocol. Since then, Brussels By Night has trained, helped, documented on the fight against gender-based violences for multiple nightlife structures and coordinated Care Teams through almost 300 events in Brussels.

Throughout late 2025, Brussels’ nightlife ecosystem entered one of the most fragile periods in its recent history. For Brussels By Night, these events confirmed warnings that had already been raised publicly since 2024: the city was approaching a structural breaking point for nightlife venues. Rather than limiting its response to internal advocacy, BBN launched a broad awareness campaign aimed at bringing the issue into public debate and forcing institutions to confront the scale of the problem.

Experiences of racism and unequal treatment in nightlife environments are often insufficiently documented, partly due to the normalization of certain behaviors and the lack of dedicated reporting mechanisms. That's why Brussels By Night partnered with the Brussels Night Council 2024 in the frame of this antiracism project.

Since 2023, Brussels By Night has a mobile Care Team. The Care Team is a team of paid volunteers responsible for intervening at events to ensure the comfort and well-being of patrons.

In December 2024, Brussels By Night organised Brussels Nightcall : a landmark gathering designed to strengthen dialogue, coordination, and long-term strategy for the city’s nighttime economy. The event created a much-needed space for collective reflection.

In 2023, Brussels took a historic step by officially recognising clubbing culture as part of the Region’s intangible cultural heritage. This recognition marked a profound shift in perspective: nightlife was no longer framed solely through regulatory or security lenses, but acknowledged as a living cultural practice - made up of skills, professions, communities, rituals, and creative ecosystems that have shaped Brussels for decades.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brussels’ nightlife sector was among the hardest hit, repeatedly shut down, labelled “non-essential,” and left facing prolonged uncertainty. In this context, Brussels By Night played a central coordinating and advocacy role, working relentlessly to ensure that clubs and nightlife professionals were not only heard, but concretely supported.

Following the temporary closure of Fuse in early 2023, Brussels By Night transformed a moment of crisis into an opportunity to rethink how nightlife, urban development, and residential life can coexist sustainably in the city. Rather than retreating, Brussels By Night drew on international best practices, studying models from cities such as London, Melbourne, and Amsterdam, where the Agent of Change principle has already proven its value.

In 2021, as nightlife spaces across Brussels remained largely closed and cultural activity was still heavily constrained, Brussels By Night launched Club Open Air : a timely initiative designed to take advantage of the only viable format available at the time: outdoor events. Held over ten consecutive weekends at the Dalle Administrative, the project offered a sustained platform rather than a one-off intervention, a rhythm that allowed audiences to return, organisers to plan ahead, and professionals to regain momentum.

In the fall of 2021, cases of spiking, sexual assault and rape took place in the Ixelles cemetery neighborhood, triggering the Balance Ton Bar movement. Years later, a “Sustainable Neighborhood Contract” was granted to the municipality of Ixelles : an action plan concluded between the Region, the Municipality, and the residents of a Brussels neighborhood, setting out a program of actions to be carried out with a defined budget, aimed at improving the environment of a neighborhood.

Since 2023, Brussels By Night has been working closely with a coalition of organisations, care team workers, and public partners to explore the recognition and formalisation of care teams in nightlife and public spaces, standing out for their specialized profile and role. However, Care Teams currently operate in a legal gray area, and Brussels By Night decided to work on the topic in 2025.

Since 2022, Brussels By Night has been deeply engaged in debates surrounding air-quality regulations and smoking areas in nightlife venues. While sharing public-health objectives, Brussels By Night has consistently warned against a regulatory approach that disproportionately targets clubs and nightlife spaces with increasingly strict and costly standards.

In 2025, we developed a partnership with Collecto: a shared taxi service available every day, including Sundays, between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. throughout the Brussels-Capital Region. Via 200 pick-up points at strategic STIB stops, passengers are taken to the address of their choice for a flat rate of just €6. Operating 7 nights a week from 11 PM to 6 AM, Collecto offers an affordable, safe, and practical mobility solution.

Through its partnership with Technopol, within the framework of the European Court-Circuit project, BBN helped connect Brussels’ nightlife to a broader continental effort aimed at rethinking how electronic music circulates across borders.

Beyond cultural advocacy and policy work, BBN has also invested in strengthening prevention and harm-reduction frameworks across the city’s festive ecosystem. A key component of this work is BBN’s involvement in Safe Ta Night, a Brussels-based network bringing together organisations working on health promotion, harm reduction, consent awareness, and community well-being in nightlife environments.