Around 2,000 meals were served at the National Restaurant in Brussels’ Jeu de Balle square on Sunday evening.
The event, part of the culmination of the national day festivities, featured traditional Belgian dishes like moules-frites and vegetarian vol-au-vent, as well as a giant karaoke.
From 5pm to 10pm, thousands of guests filled the iconic Place de Jeu de Balle in Marolles to enjoy these culinary delights by the Bal National association.
Each year, Bal National also provides meals for less fortunate neighbourhood residents, thanks to customer donations made with their reservations.
Around 250 people benefited from this initiative. Under the slogan, ‘Everyone at the Table’, it allowed those in need to join the feast for a symbolic fee of one euro.
The evening was enhanced with majorette performances, brass bands and singing.
The ‘Les Juliens’ band performed a repertoire by French singer Julien Clerc, before a giant bilingual karaoke organised by ‘Bruxelles Zingt’ and ‘Orde van de Brusselse Moestasje’ started at around 8pm.
On Saturday evening, more than 15,000 people had gathered on the dance floor of the Bal National, in the same location.
