Concise.pdf - Brugge Plus

Youthful impatience
We were warned... Warned that young people here yell themselves hoarse year after year to
no avail, that youth centres go bankrupt, that there are no rehearsal rooms or party halls,
or that those that do exist are insufficient or over-regulated, that cinema seats are guaranteed
to be torn up, and that nothing else happens... That once you reach eighteen, you slam
the door behind you and head off to Ghent, Antwerp or Brussels, never to go back... That
things are really going badly wrong for young people in Bruges.
Pressed between facts and discourse, BRUGGE 2002 decided to set about working on this
unmanageable field. The mere fact that BRUGGE 2002 recruited three full-time youth
programmers in its team put the youth programme at the top of the list of priorities!
Hijack the city
Now, a dissatisfied rumbling youth scene is of course in itself no unusual phenomenon.
As a matter of fact, it is a somewhat essential ingredient. An initial major task was
therefore to give these voices a mouthpiece – a podium and a forum for youth culture.
The motto and the framework for this was Kaapstad (literally the city name “Cape
Town”, but a play on words with a double meaning of “Hijack City”): for an entire
month youth culture had a central place in BRUGGE 2002. The festival site bristled
with activity, with workshops and presentations: music, video art, fashion, stand-up
comedy, film etc. The site was located between the German concert ship Stubnitz,
a transit shed, a container site and the Entrepot (Warehouse) building, the future
youth centre. The Stubnitz was the central focus of attention. Over more than three
weeks some one hundred and twenty Belgian groups and acts and fifty or so foreign
bands appeared here.
In the city and at numerous organisations the final touches were simultaneously
being put to various youth productions: drama performances (Beet, Sorry dat..., Het
moment,…), a short film (El Fish d’ Or), and a surprising international project that saw
eight gables in the city decorated with highly individualistic creations on the theme
of heritage and architecture (Frontsid[t]e/Back[-]side).
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CONCISE
“Kaapstad” was certainly not the success that we and many others had dreamed of,
but it was important enough as a statement and experiment for people to realise from
now on that Bruges and young people
do indeed belong together. By November
2002 Bruges had progressed perhaps a
decade in respect of 2000. The Den
Dwarskop youth centre was saved from
bankruptcy, the new Regional Centre for
Youth Culture is to occupy the Kaapstad
site, and over the past two years venues
and resources have been earmarked for
youth organisations, unforgettable projects
have been reviewed, a standing con-
King’s College Choir Cambridge
cert hall for pop and rock concerts has
been built on, the new youth work policy
plan has entered into force, and so
on. Many steps have been taken, with a
lot of seeking and stumbling along the
way – although on falling we always
gleaned something for what came next
when we got up.
In Bella Copia
© LENKA FLORY