The Rollers Parade is coming to Mons

Inline skating fans will be able to skate every day of the summer in seven of the country's cities! BRUSSELS ∇ Skaters, sharpen your wheels! The asphalt is going to heat up this summer in Mons as well as in six other cities across the country. The Rollers 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. Brussels Rollers is therefore changing its name to Belgium Rollers. No fewer than 30,000 skaters and some 100,000 spectators: the success of Brussels Rollers had exceeded all expectations! Last summer, a group of joyful skaters suggested to the City of Brussels that a Rollers Parade be created every Friday evening in July and August, following the practice in Paris for several years. The Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, and his police chief Roland Vanreusel went to the City of Light to discover the phenomenon. Upon their return, they decided to import it. A route was developed that took participants from the Palace of Justice to the edges of the Bois de la Cambre and went back down towards the main downtown boulevards and the Halles Saint-Géry. A dozen volunteer police officers from the Brussels-Capital-Ixelles zone created the first brigade of Rollers Cops for the occasion. "They have the difficult task of calming the enthusiasm of the young people at the front of the procession, pushing cyclists and skateboarders to the back of the convoy behind the inline 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 participate 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 friendly 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." The parade will be organized every evening starting at 9 p.m. It will be in Hasselt on Mondays; in Namur on Tuesdays; in Ghent on Wednesdays. 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 Rollers Cops, trained by the pros of Carl de Moncharline's team, the designer of the project.