The public holiday on Friday attracted 210,000 visitors to the Ghent Festival (Gentse Feesten), bringing the provisional total for the citywide festival to almost 1.3 million visitors, 17 per cent of whom came from abroad.
After eight days, the Gentse Feesten counter stands at 1,295,000 visitors. Seventeen percent of them came from abroad, according to data from telecom operators. Most were Dutch, followed by French, Germans, Brits and Spaniards.
So far, the annual event in Ghent has been generally calm. On Thursday, there were a few incidents of brawling and violence against the police. On Friday, the atmosphere seemed more friendly, according to police spokesman Matto Langeraert. Ghent police recorded 11 brawls, while 65 revellers were fined for urinating in public and two cars were towed away.
First aid interventions
The Red Cross attended to 158 visitors at first aid posts on Friday, and ambulances were called to the festival area 15 times. Fourty-three people went to the emergency services, two of whom had to be hospitalised.
The Ghent Festival is an annual ten-day festival that takes over the entire city centre of Ghent, capital of the East Flanders province. Besides stage events, there are street acts such as mimes and street musicians. Together with the Oktoberfest in Munich and Las Fallas in Valencia, the festivities are among the biggest folk festivals in Europe. In 2021, the Ghent Festival was recognised as intangible heritage by the Flemish minister of Culture.
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