Celebration in the service of a cause

After the Mirano, Jean-Pierre Mels defined himself as a « metteur en fête »: strategic communications adviser, coordinator of public events, president of the non-profit Absolument from 2003 to 2013. He created the first « Nuit sans accident » with the Responsible Young Drivers, rolled out across twenty-five clubs in Belgium; the opening of the Fête de la Musique on the Place des Palais, the square turned into a giant dance floor facing the Royal Palace; and co-founded Bruxelles Champêtre in 2002, an ecological awareness event in the heart of the city.

He also coordinated the organic markets of the Fête de l'Europe, the Fête du Vélo (Dring Dring), the Fête du Port de Bruxelles and the Fête de l'environnement, and co-founded the food stands of Mobilissimo, the sustainable mobility gathering.

On Bruxelles Champêtre he was not alone: his partner on the event was Thierry Vandebroek, also a former KCC man, the company where Carl De Moncharline worked. It is a small world, and the paths cross: the same production school, moving from nightlife to public space.

This is where the parallel with Carl De Moncharline's own path reads most clearly: by day as by night, we both worked as much at night as by day, non-stop in fact. The same conviction that a nightlife organiser's craft can serve a public cause. Carl extended it in his own way, notably with his road-safety campaigns. You think you inherit a trade; above all you inherit a way of seeing.