The French and Flemish community authorities will support 18 cultural projects together in 2017. These include the NEXT International Dance and Drama Festival. “A cultural collaboration often leaves to good cooperation in other areas”, the Flemish Cultural Minister Sven Gatz explained in Courtrai on Saturday afternoon.
NEXT is a cooperation agreement between Flemish, Walloon and French co-organisers. It started in four towns back in 2008. It was recently designated as one of the trendiest festivals in Europe by EFFE (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe).
“NEXT was born out of an ambitious international artistic program and linguistic collaboration between the culture departments of the Euro-metropole Lille-Courtrai-Tournai”, the organisers explained. “The festival can minimise the negative impact of state and linguistic borders, as right now the borders between our regions are once again sensitive for the first time in a long time”.
The Flemish Culture Minister Sven Gatz and his French-language counterpart Alda Greoli presented the 18 projects they hoped to support together next year on Saturday afternoon in Courtrai. “The cooperation agreement between the French and Flemish communities has really taken off”, Sven Gatz concluded.
(Source: Belga)
