This Friday, the Kunstenfestivaldesarts (KFDA) in Brussels launches its 31st edition, presenting more than 170 performing arts shows on a production budget of just €1 million — a striking figure in an era of widespread arts funding cuts across Europe. The festival, which draws around 30,000 visitors annually, traditionally opens the European performing arts season ahead of Avignon in July and Edinburgh's international festival in August.
Co-director Daniel Blanga Gubbay described the budget as both substantial and limited compared with peers like Avignon. “It is a fairly large budget and at the same time extremely limited compared with other festivals in Europe, such as Avignon or others,” he told Euronews Culture. “But it allows us to support the production of artists for shows that premiere during our festival.” The model relies on low venue costs in Brussels — many spaces are provided free — and on co-productions and partnerships to finance works.
A Festival of Two Communities
KFDA’s dual identity is central to its mission: it is jointly funded by Belgium’s Flemish and Walloon communities, which have long been at odds over language and politics. For three weeks each year, the festival sets aside these differences. “This year, we will have theatre on stage in Farsi, Spanish, Thai... It has always been our intention to maintain this linguistic polyphony on stage,” Blanga Gubbay said. “And each production is simultaneously subtitled in French, Dutch and English. It is a huge work.”
Founded by Flemish director Frie Leysen, the festival was designed as an international event bridging Belgium’s linguistic divide. “She used to say that artists are like antennas, helping us understand what is happening in the world,” added Blanga Gubbay. This year’s lineup includes major names such as Italian performer Romeo Castellucci, French choreographer Boris Charmatz, and Spanish director Angélica Liddell. Artists presenting in Europe for the first time include Thai choreographer Thanapol Virulhakul and Indonesian choreographers Leu Wijee and Mio Ishida.
The festival partners with international institutions like France’s Festival d’Automne, the Sharjah Art Foundation in the UAE, and the Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in Taiwan to mount productions. This global network mirrors the festival’s own diversity.
Political Art in a Tense World
This year’s edition reflects global tensions. In Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme interlace poems and songs by Palestinian prisoners, testing the boundaries of Israeli repressive structures. Meanwhile, Ali Asghar Dashti and Nasim Ahmadpour present Noli Me Tangere, where the absence of an imprisoned Iranian actor becomes a striking stage presence, raising questions about theatre as a space of emancipation. These works echo broader debates, such as those seen in JM Coetzee's boycott of the Jerusalem Writers Festival over the Gaza conflict.
According to Blanga Gubbay, the festival’s most “ambitious” production is A Flower of Forgetfulness by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the Thai director who won the 2010 Palme d’Or at Cannes. The work opens at the Brigittines Chapel in central Brussels. “A large white veil floats through the air of the Brigittines Chapel, as if carried by a constant breath,” the festival’s programme reads. “Across the fabric, projected images appear and fade with the folds and shadows, like fleeting dreams.”
KFDA’s ability to unite Belgium’s Flemish and French-speaking communities through art remains a rare achievement in a country often divided by language. As the festival season begins, it offers a model for how culture can transcend political boundaries — even on a shoestring budget.
