The 28th edition of the Theater by the Sea festival in Ostend concluded on Saturday evening, attracting a total of 100,000 visitors.
The festival sold 50,000 tickets for 600 performances across 50 locations, according to its organisers. This year’s central theme was ‘Le Temps d’une Chanson’.
Over ten days, visitors enjoyed hundreds of performances throughout Ostend. In addition to ticket sales, thousands attended free performances, bringing the total visitor count to approximately 100,000.
The theme ‘Le Temps d’une Chanson’ served as a consistent thread throughout the festival. Artistic director Cindy Godefroi curated the programme around this theme. The festival began with a featured song performed in various acts, culminating in the opening night’s performance by the 101-year-old Alice Toen with her piece ‘De Tijd van Toen’.
Nine premieres were featured, including ‘Queen of the Flies’, a story about seven drag queens, a captain, and a writer stranded on a deserted island, and ‘Macc(h)abees’ by Sophie Warant, exploring her seven-year research on death in a physical performance. In Belgium, first-time performances included ‘Er is geen ritme, er is geen regen’, ‘Bulk’, ‘DEEPER’, and ‘A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here’.
