National Café Day will be held across Flanders for the first time on Saturday, with about 1,900 pubs taking part in an initiative to highlight the decline of pubs and their role as community meeting places.
The event has been organised by Kroegtijgers, which wants to draw renewed attention to pub culture in Flanders.
The number of pubs in the region has fallen sharply in recent years. According to an analysis by research bureau Locatus, cited by the organisation, Flanders had 8,502 pubs in 2013.
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A decade later, that number had dropped to 5,763, a decline of 32.2%.
Participating pubs will host a range of activities on Saturday, including live performances, DJ sets, karaoke, tastings, pub games and other events.
A delegation from Kroegtijgers will also travel through 11 Flemish cities during the day. The tour will begin at 9am in Genk and end around midnight in Ostend.
Stops are planned in several cities along the way, including Leuven, Antwerp, Aalst, Ghent, Bruges and Kortrijk.
At 6pm, hundreds of pubs will ring a pub bell at the same time as a symbolic start to the evening.
The organisers intend to make National Café Day an annual event.
