Belgian culture and entertainment, in English

Flemish television, music and film have their own stars, awards and controversies; the francophone scene has its own, with far more traffic to and from Paris than across the language border. Someone who is a household name in Antwerp can be genuinely unknown in Liège. Covering Belgian culture in English means covering both, which the English-language press here mostly does not.

Then the things Belgium exports. The festival circuit — Tomorrowland, Rock Werchter, Pukkelpop, Gentse Feesten — is disproportionately large for the country's size and draws people from across Europe. Comics are a national art form with a museum to match. Belgian cinema wins at Cannes more often than a country of eleven million has any business doing. And the museums, from the Magritte to the Africa Museum's long reckoning with its own collection, are genuinely first rank.

We summarise it to 60 words in English: what is on, what won, who is touring, what closed. Festival dates and ticket news as it lands rather than after.

Reviews are not the point here. The brief tells you a thing exists and when; the judgement is yours.