Young afficionado attends 34 Flemish festivals in nine weeks

Under the banner of ‘Flanders is a Festival’, Toerisme Vlaanderen Flanders Tourist Office launched an initiative to attract more foreign tourists to local festivals. As the winner of an international competition, 21-year-old German national Isabell Schmid won herself free entry to all festivals. Home after enjoying a 9-week trip which was rounded off with a visit to Laundry Day, she is most impressed with the diversity she experienced. Says Schmid: “Our personal highlights were Tomorrowland and Pukkelpop; the former for its overwhelming atmosphere and presentation and the latter for the excellent music. Others that impressed included the smaller, intimate festivals like the Cactus Festival and Couleur Café, which we don’t have in Germany. So many festivals in such a small area! None of them disappointed. Andrés and I always considered the total offering. Dranouter, for example, was not as good, but then we were quite taken in with the alternative atmosphere. Or Ghent Jazz, which did not exactly fall into our music taste, but was nevertheless a magical festival.”