Red Cathedral

This Cars & Coffee-event was hosted by Café Poorthuis in Tongeren. If the name of this event rings a bell, that might be because there are C&C-meetings all over the world.  "Cars & Coffee is the global phenomenon where the passion of supercar owners and enthusiasts become reality. It is a world class, multibrand and multiperiod display to share the emotions conveyed by the roar of powerful engines and by the sight of so many stunning cars",   Is what the  official Cars & Coffee website  states. However: their events seem to have ceased in 2019 and yet in the following days and weeks there will be similarly named meetings in Bonheiden, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, Kortrijk, Almere, Swindon, New Braunfels, Hamburg, ..  The multibrand and multiperiod statements were absolutely true for the Tongeren meeting. Oldtimers, youngtimers, brand new supercars.  Brits, Germans, Japanese, Americans, French, Scandinavians, Dutch and evidently some fiery It...

Precisely a decade ago, during a rainy weekend, there was a Viking market in Tongeren and I was exited for this initiative by the Gallo-Roman museum. Alas it took me 10 years and living in Tongeren for half a decade, to cover another such event by this museum.  Luckily the Roman festival ( Romeinenfestival ) was worth the wait. A Roman market with historical artisans, workshops, free museum entrance, food, 50 re-enactors, including legionairs from several legions, periods and provinces and the thing everybody remembers: gladiator fights in the streets.  And the weather was much better. Some useful links: ▷ All photos can always be found on/downloaded from my Flickr and here ! ▷ A " How to download stills from Flickr " tutorial was posted here . ▷ Some highlights might go to Instagram , Threads or Bluesky . ▷ A video might go to Clapper & to Tiktok ▷ Buy Red Cathedral a whisky on Ko-Fi ▷ Updates are on THE Facebook . ▷ Give a follow to this young creative fo...

Starting a review with some words of praise seems right. Thank you Elftopia for installing huge umbrellas at the food area so people could eat without getting scorched by the sun ( and guess what; if it rains, those same umbrellas also protect cosplays and cameras ).  Thank you Elftopia for lowering the price of water during the ongoing heatwave.  Thank you Elftopia for making sure there was plenty to see, and to do, other than posing/shooting for photographers/cosplayers, or having a chat with friends, followers & acquintances.  Thank you Elftopia for an efficient, and well-controlled parking system.  Thank you Elftopia for not selling every shot of mead at 7€.  Thank you Elftopia for making the potato field behind the pink chapel finally accessable to diabled persons, and no longer a hazard for ankles. Thank you Elftopia for listening to the complaints of the visitors over the years and making adjustments where possible.  In a perfect world, I would h...

There was an anomaly in the time-space continuum during Castlefest . We arrived -on Sunday- earlier than usual. Didn't do anything unusual. Only danced to the concert of SeeD. Drank less mead than normal. Yet still we did not manage to see the entire fair in a day. So the fabric of time must have torn or folded in some strange way, causing it to slip uncontrollably through our fingers. Even stranger: it only started raining at the moment we reached the car. That's simply uncanny!  What witchcraft have you used Castlefestians? Teach me ! My only witchcraft comes out of some soulsnatching boxes dangling by my sides.  And if you want to see the results you'll have to be patient. I'm editing the CF stills, and those of a spaghetti western shoot 2 days earlier ( No, this time I did NOT set a church on fire ), and editing videos for our  LGBTQIA+/cosplay project , and the following weekends are filled with Elftopia , Antwerp Pride and Geek Village . But don't w...

Love the person you fall in love with.. and be happy if that person loves you back.  Be the person you feel you are.. and live your life in peace and in harmony with the world. Never forget that a Pride is actually a protest march to make you remember that there are compatriots of yours struggling to have the same rights & possibilities as you just because they refuse to hide their true feelings & their true self in the bottom drawer of a dark closet like so many did before them in order to comply with a general opinion that was imposed on people by several dogmatic, patriarchal religions and authoritarian politicians. ( and their following ) A Pride is about being persecuted for doing no wrong to anyone else. About making choices that matter to yourself and no-one else should feel bothered by. It's about humans who are being denied basic human rights. About a lack of fundamental freedom. About people who need to defend themselves from haters. Who often have to...

Waar de meesten enkele jaren geleden nog dachten dat de LGBTQIA+ gemeenschap eindelijk de rechten hadden gekregen waar alle mensen recht op hebben, Prides hun protest-aspect niet langer nodig zouden hebben en op termijn konden vervellen tot een feest waar straight en minder straight mekaar kunnen ontmoeten, is de situatie ondertussen erg veranderd. Dit weekend, op zaterdag 28 juni 2025, trokken bijna 200.000 LGBTQIA+-personen, hun Allies en iedereen die geeft om democratische burgerrechten door de straten van Boedapest ondanks een verbod van de hoogste politieke leider, ondanks de strenge straffen die hen te wachten stonden. Overal ter wereld draaien autocratische leiders de rechten van hun burgers terug en de LGBTQIA+-groep lijdt hier enorm onder. In plaats van er enkel verdrietig om te zijn en zich erbij neer te leggen, is de gemeenschap strijdvaardig om niet enkel haar rechten, maar de rechten van alle burgers te verdedigen. Het verleden leert ons dat fascistische en autocratisc...