The new Cactus Music Center in Bruges officially opened its doors on Friday night.
The new centre, located on the Bargeplein, will host some 80 concerts a year. It consists of two sections: a large concert hall with seating for 700 spectators and the Cactus Café, which will not open its doors until later.
The building also has lodges, a green room, offices, a terrace and two future rehearsal rooms.
Because of rising prices, the construction of the music centre proved much more expensive than projected: the planned cost of €5.8 million ended up being €7.5 million, so Cactus Club received an additional subsidy from Flanders and the city of Brugge.
On Friday evening, the concert hall was officially opened in the presence of Mayor Dirk De fauw, with Pol Van den Driessche attending on behalf of Prime Minister Jan Jambon.
“The new Cactus Club symbolises not only a golden marriage between the non-profit organisation Cactus Music Center and culture, but also a marriage between the culture sector, a large group of volunteers, the city of Brugge and the Flemish government,” Van den Driessche said.
“Cactus Club is more than a renovated and enlarged Magdalena hall. The new Cactus Club will become a lively, professional centre for current music culture in Flanders with international appeal,” he added.
The Whatevers and KNNT provided music at Friday evening's opening and were scheduled to continue doing so during the after-party on Friday night.
The musical opening night, on Saturday, will feature Chibi Ichigo, Borokov Borokov, Aili and Carlamote.
