Hello, Fellow Antwerpenaars! It’s good to be back after a bit of traveling and an October break from blogging. Having been away, I’m way behind and have a backlog on my personal Antwerp to-do list. I still haven’t properly scoped out the new Zaha Hadid Port House Building, the renovated Plantin Moretus Museum on Vrijdagmarkt (which family members visited *gasp* WITHOUT ME in my absence and heartily recommend) or Mercado on Groenplaats (well, I did go in but it was crazy busy. Will return when it’s settled down).
However … for now let’s take a more detailed look at what is going on this Hallowe’en weekend, as autumn gets well underway. Here’s the GOOGLE MAP with all the places mentioned here, so that you can find them …
Friday
It being the last Friday of the month, it’s Critical Mass -assemble as usual at 6pm on Theaterplein, but this month is a special Hallowe’en Edition so get dressed up for this one, and decorate your bike!
For a night out with a difference, and costing a mere 3 euros, head to FOMU at 8pm for Nightwatch (performance, poetry & party …).
Saturday
Vinyl lovers: head to Plein Publiek from 11am for a record fair held in conjunction with Rotkat record store.
If you have a younger reader in your family then this book presentation at the Sjokkel Toy Shop will be of interest to you, as local children’s writer, Vered Ben Kiki shows a number of her books, such as’De Andere Kous’, ‘Arthur nodigt je uit naar zijn event’, ‘Hanna is bang om naar school te gaan’, ‘Elias Opa & Het Amsterdamse Piratenkantoor’ and ‘Dick De Draak wordt verliefd’. The books are available in a variety of languages: English, Dutch, French, Hebrew and Arabic, wth one story (‘Hanna is bang om naar school te gaan’) also in Japanese.
Singles organisation Sling opens its doors to everyone (you don’t need to be single) at the ICU Art Expo at the Mosterdfabriek right near Par Spoor Noord. It’s free, but the afterparty is ticketed (7 euros)
Creative autumn shoppers might like to hang out in Grand Bazar shopping centre, where between the 29th October and 6th November, you can join in decorating a mug and get some free pumpkin soup -from 1.30 each day, except Sunday.
And there is a huge second hand market on Sint -Jansplein (9am -5pm).
Sunday
At 11.30 at the Sint Carolus Borromeuskerk The Manchester Chorale will sing for an hour. This is free. It’s also a very beautiful church -perhaps it gets overlooked, dwelling as it does in the shadow of Antwerp’s much better known OLV Cathedral.
ICU expo continues.
The weather this weekend is expected to be cool and dry this weekend (13- 14 degrees) with highest chances of showers on Sunday.
Miscellaneous
Monday is Hallowe’en in case you have failed to notice. The Irish pubs in particular are always big on this event -there’s always a busy dress-up party at Kelly’s (Keyserlei) and this year there is a Rocky Horror Picture Show party at An Sibhin with the film showing at 9pm. This party at music pub Cabron (right near Grote Markt) also looks promising.
Don’t forget that (happily for those with hangovers) the next day- 1st November – is a public holiday in Belgium. From 9 -6 on Theaterplein, Goegekregen will be holding a big second hand market. There’s usually a very reasonably priced bar for those requiring a little hair of the dog.
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by journalist Laura de Backer for local paper Den Triangel about Nessacityblog and the post-referendum Brexit post(s) I have written.
Great news for street art fans who read this blog: Street Art Antwerp (AKA Tim Streetwerpenaar) are indeed going ahead with tours in English on Wednesday mornings. Discover the hidden world of graffiti and street art in Antwerp during a tour which last 90 mins -2 hours, starting at 10am (Berchem Station). There is no official charge, but participants are encouraged to make a voluntary donation, which will be gifted to charity -in this case Music For Life. Make contact with Tim via his Facebook page or on [email protected] if you would like to join a tour. Additionally, Street Art Antwerp offers this sparkly new app so you can find your own way too.
Find Nessascityblog on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram!
Brexit posts are here (part 1) and here (part 2).
Thanks to Vered Ben Kiki, Street Art Antwerp, Sacha Eckes and Pixabay for the images they supplied for this post, and to Math Artist Foundation for the banner (below)
