Brussels neighbours celebrate en masse

THUISKRANT — WEDNESDAY 28 Brussels neighbours celebrate en masse BRUSSELS — Several thousand Brussels residents celebrated 'Feest in het Gebouw' for the first time last night. The aim: to get to know your neighbours a little better in the anonymous big city. With a reception at the town hall for his neighbours from the Grand-Place, Brussels mayor Freddy Thielemans fired the starting shot for the neighbours' party. Spread across the 19 municipalities and even at one spot in Wezembeek-Oppem, neighbours visited each other for an aperitif, a meal or a dance. Texts Bart AERTS & photos Harry GOOSSENS AT THE TOWN HALL "Living together in a friendly way" In the wedding hall of Brussels town hall, traders and residents of the Grand-Place gathered last night. With the invitation, mayor Freddy Thielemans made his contribution to 'Feest in het Gebouw'. "You rarely meet people this way," said the mayor. "It is fantastic that even commuters are taking part. That is the meaning of the city: living together in a friendly way." Renée Gobert runs the lace shop "Maison Antoine". "I am one of the few who both work and live on the Grand-Place. I had already met the mayor. But it is nice to get to know the colleagues from the area better too." One of them is Paul-Louis De Gendt of the tavern-restaurant 'La Brouette' or 'De Kruiwagen'. "People are becoming estranged from each other. Many traders from the centre of Brussels do not live here. I myself live in Dendermonde. This is a very good initiative that could even happen more often." IN THE STREET "First party in 38 years" The area around Diksmuidelaan near the Klein Kasteeltje is extremely colourful. Revellers stream in from all sides of the street. "Congolese, Moroccan wholesalers, trendy Flemish people and older people too," lists Veerle Vercauteren. Together with Achmed Arfa she put her shoulder under the local 'Feest in het Gebouw'. In Achmed's snack bar the tables are festively laid. On the menu, among other things, couscous, the house speciality. More than a hundred people from the neighbourhood accept the invitation. "It is the first time in 38 years that anything has been organised here in the street," say Veerle and Achmed. "And not commercial, mind. Just having fun and getting to know each other a bit better." Next year the organisers see it a little bigger. "Why not a big neighbourhood party with a terrace on the car park in the middle of the avenue?" Initiator Carl De Moncharline is also all for a bigger 'Feest in het Gebouw' given the success. "Then we will do the same throughout the country."