Lunalia 2024

The hearts of Europe

LUNALIA is the Festival of Flanders Mechelen’s new city festival, the successor to Mechelen hoort Stemmen. The name refers both to the Mechelen legend of the ‘Maneblussers’ (luna), and to the fascinating universe of the human voice (lia). In other words, it is still an international festival of voices, but in times of alleged ‘fake news’, this Festival consciously goes in search of voices that have something genuine, something real, to say. So it is not just about the ‘loveliest songs’ - instead it explores every aspect of speaking, singing, hesitant, strident or very soft human voices.

Europe has many hearts. At Lunalia, you can come and listen to these hearts beating in Mechelen. Belgium will take on the European presidency in the first half of 2024, so it’s only logical that Mechelen will have a related city theme in the spring: Construct Europe. Lunalia’s response is a motto that reflects the many voices of Europe, with a focus on Central Europe and a special place in our hearts for the Czech music scene.

One reason for this is the celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of Bedřich Smetana’s birth. Smetana was born in 1824. His operas, and particularly his symphonic cycle Má Vlast, ‘My Fatherland’ (including the famous symphonic poem ‘The Moldau’), are world-famous, but his chamber music, songs and choir music also deserve to be better known. For this aspect of the program, Lunalia works in close partnership with Czech Dreams and our Czech partner festival, Concentus Moraviae.

Practical info

When?

18/04/2024 - 08/05/2024 

Price

€22
More info & tickets: www.lunalia.be/en

Location

Mechelen - Historische binnenstad
Grote Markt 1
2800 Mechelen