The Roller Parade is back

In-line skating fans will be able to skate every summer day in seven cities across the country! BRUSSELS ▽ Skaters, sharpen your wheels! The asphalt will be heating up this summer in Brussels as well as in six other cities across the country. The Roller Parade will indeed be organized in a different city every day of the week during the summer holidays. Namur, Liège, Mons as well as Ghent, Hasselt and Koksijde join Brussels in this unprecedented phenomenon in Belgium. The Brussels Rollers event therefore changes its name to become Belgium Rollers. No fewer than 30,000 skaters and some 100,000 spectators, the success of Brussels Rollers had exceeded all expectations! Remember last summer, a group of cheerful skaters suggested to the City of Brussels that they create a Roller Parade every Friday evening in July and August. Just like what has been done in Paris for several years. The mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, and his zone chief Roland Vanreusel traveled to the City of Light to discover the phenomenon. Upon their return, they decided to import it. A circuit was devised taking participants from the Law Courts to the edge of the Bois de la Cambre and heading back down towards the main central boulevards and the Halles-Saint-Géry. A dozen volunteer police officers from the Brussels-Capital-Ixelles zone created the first brigade of Roller Cops for the occasion. "They have the difficult task of reining in the enthusiasm of the young people at the front of the procession, pushing cyclists and skateboarders to the back of the convoy behind the skaters. They must also soothe the impatience of motorists blocked for ten minutes by the passage of the procession," explains Roland Vanreusel. "I had the opportunity to take part twice last year in the roller parade... on a bicycle," explains Elio Di Rupo, president of the PS and mayor of Mons. "I took real pleasure in this convivial parade that brings together all classes of the population. I therefore have the honor to say that Mons will also participate in this event by welcoming skaters every Saturday on a 20 km route. We will also have a brigade of 22 skating police officers." So to sum up, the parade will be organized every day in the evening from 9 p.m. The roller ride will take to the streets of Hasselt, the city of mobility, on Mondays, it will be in Namur on Tuesdays, in Ghent on Wednesdays (except July 23 and 30 due to the Gentse Feesten). Liège will host skaters on Thursdays, Brussels, as usual, on Fridays, Mons on Saturdays and Koksijde on Sundays July 20 and August 24. With the exception of Liège and Koksijde, all other cities will have their own brigade of Roller Cops, all trained by the pros from the team of Carl de Moncharline, the project designer.