Two-day, cross-border musical event between Brussels and Lille to celebrate Europe Day

The 8th edition of Liveurope’s musical celebration of Europe Day will take place on 12 and 13 May with a special cross-border event between Brussels and Lille. 

Live music venues Ancienne Belgique and L’Aéronef in France are joining forces to organise a series of concerts, discussions and networking opportunities in celebration of European shared values and cultures, the organisation announced.

“As a public holiday celebrating peace and unity, Europe Day takes on newfound significance in the current geopolitical context,” said Elise Phamgia, general coordinator of Liveurope.

“That’s why it was even more important for us to mark this date once again and celebrate what unites us as Europeans: the shared cultures that are at the very foundation of the EU.”

The event begins in Brussels on 12 May and ends in Lille on the 13th. It kicks-off at Ancienne Belgique with an opening cocktail co-hosted by the Cultural Creators Friendship Group, a cross-partisan coalition in the European Parliament, followed by musical performances. 

The second and final day will feature closed-working groups and additional musical performances. 

‘Celebrating common values’

“In these troubled times Europe is facing, the event will be the occasion to celebrate European common values through music,” the organisation said in a press release. 

“Especially after nearly two years of shutdown of the live music sector, this is the moment to come together and put European cultural cooperation on the centre stage.”

The two evenings of concerts feature a selection of promising acts from all over the continent, including Turkish psychedelia-electronica group LALALAR (TR), Belgian singer-songwriter and Music Moves Europe Award winner Meskerem Mees, and psychedelic metal French band SLIFT playing alongside the renowned sax player Etienne Jaumet (Zombie Zombie).

The event also features a series of meetings and discussions targeted at music professionals, including the representatives of the 21 Liveurope member venues. 

These exchanges will revolve around urgent topics for the sector, such as gender equality, sustainability, and recovery from the pandemic. 

The initiative is co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the EU and has the official endorsement of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the Cultural Creators Friendship Group, a cross-partisan coalition of currently 26 Members of the European Parliament from six different political groups and 14 different countries.