Red Cathedral

Tongeren looks at its best when the entire city is celebrating . Carnaval is on the shortlist of highlight events. So eventhough I was still completely exhausted from the wonderful masked ball Ensor Danst in Alden Biesen the night before, had only slept 4 hours and my aching back was killing me, I hopped.. well rather: crawled .. on my electric step so I would not miss the big carnaval parade in the city center. An image gallery : This year I stayed on the sidelines instead of jumping into the parade and shoot portraits like last year . So that's different. What's also different were the antique Carnaval Giants leading the parade. They had been lost for decades and after being recovered the team from Mario's delicious ice-cream parlor restored them. Kudos to that restauration team! If I'm feeling better & more alive next year, I'll be once again in the middle of the action.. the way I like it. ▷ All photos can be found on/downloaded from my Flickr

2024 is het Ensor-jaar. Wie meer informatie wenst over deze Oostende kunstschilder (1860-1949) kan altijd terrecht op Wikipedia . Zijn surrealistische, modernistische en expressionistische schilderijen vol maskers en symbolen zoals De Intrige uit 1890 kent iedereen ongetwijfeld. De maskers van James Ensor inspireerden de statige Landcommanderij Alden Biesen tot deze Soirée Masquée: Ensor Danst (op 10 februari). Een gemaskerd bal in de prachtige waterburcht in Belle Epoque-stijl om hun Ensor-jaar stijlvol en glamoureus mee te openen. . Wie poseerde voor een foto kan die via deze Flickr-link GRATIS downloaden. Hier onder alvast een kleine slideshow: ▷ Updates over de voortgang van de fotoverwerking staan op Facebook . ▷ Een mini-video komt op Instagram en op Clapper .     ▷ Trakteer fotograaf Red Cathedral op een whisky via Ko-Fi . ▷ Gemaakt met de steun van Deep Red Noise vzw ▷ Fysieke prints bestellen tegen een democratische prijs kan op aanvraag via Oyp

Every 7 years over 10% of the population in the oldest city in Belgium participates in a week of reenactments, processions & after dark shows, all dedicated to the biblical Mary. ( Background story ) and they're aged between 89 years and 1 month old. In 2023, for the 19th edition since 1890 , there are over 3000 participants and they attracted 65000 spectators on the 1st day. 3 More days to go, I said after that 1st Sunday You can just feel a symbiotic connection, some strange form of unity between the citizens. Yes, it's a religious evocation of biblical stories and many participate out of pure heartfelt beliefs, but it's also more than that. It trancends simple religious zealousness both as a spectacle and as a way to create bridges & forge bonds between the citizens. The final day still lured over 50000 visitors to the town ( a day during which it was live-streamed ànd most events for that day were cancelled due to a code red storm warning ) Very impressive