Festival BRU-TAAL: 5 reasons to travel to Bruges now

See, the Belgians do that well. When a new literary festival comes along, it immediately lasts more than a whole week instead of two days. Today marks the start of the first edition of the International Literature Festival BRU-TAAL. Five reasons to travel to 'the Venice of the North' in the coming days: Bruges.

9 days, 2 weekends, almost 59 writers, 78 acts, 14 venues - BRU-TAAL is going big. Literature, music and performances are explicitly linked to the historic city centre of Bruges, which is also one of the main venues. Besides numerous performances, read-alouds, duo talks and interviews with the likes of Cees Nooteboom, Connie Palmen, Sandro Veronesi, Hagar Peeters, Marie NDaye, Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Annelies Verbeke, Lize Spit and many others, the festival also aims to bring surprise acts. Five highlights from the festival programme:

Wordboat

Bruges is a beautiful city of canals and waterways - not for nothing is it called the Venice of the North. BRU-TAAL takes advantage of this for the programme Woordboot, where you can join an author - including Adriaan van Dis and Philippe Claudel - for a beautiful cruise on the Bruges canals.

Breakfast calls

The chance to eat toast with an interesting writer! Start your Sunday off right and join Bart Moeyaert, Lara Taveirne or Boualem Sansal for poetry and breakfast. The opportunity to listen in an intimate setting and ask anything you might like.

Brutalavista

A city walk through Bruges, but BRU-TAAL's style, that is Brutalavista. There are three different routes through the city centre, with young creators treating visitors to thought-provoking stories, songs and performances. The word in all its manifestations, both light-hearted and profound.

Nightwatch

Writer Dimitri Verhulst and jazz trio Too Noisy Fish present a captivating musical spoken word performance. To the sounds of an exciting soundtrack, Verhulst sketches a picture of the condition humaine, with videographers Trisha de Cuyper and Jan Lapeire presenting excerpts from the films Sister and Nightwatch To have a dialogue with each other. A performance to undergo.

Closer to the bridge

There are plenty of ways to enjoy poetry during BRU-TAAL, such as at a high-tea. Also beautiful is Dichter op de Brug. Like modern trabadours, Menno Wigman, Charlotte Van den Broeck and Jordanian poet Amjad Nasser perform their beautiful poems on the Torenbrug, between the Spaanse Loskaai and the Gouden Handrei. Such names alone lure you there.