Behind the scenes at Ommegang and Meyboomplanting: Folklore is still alive in Brussels

To be elected, you have to answer some questions about Brussels, Brussels speaks And drink gueuze. I also have a surprise in store for the jury every year. The Gardevils now know they can count on me. As Madame Chapo, you have to attend six events a year and I do. We tour the city ourselves with the Gardevils. This is a completely different kind of folklore than the Ommegang at the Grote Markt, which you have to buy a ticket to. I call this Richards folklore.

“I’ve never dressed as a woman before, except to be silly among my football friends. I’m just a set designer, I’m sixty years old and I have a family. But since I started playing Madame Chapeau, I’ve been getting more and more into our old plays and songs. Isn’t it wonderful to know that people used to come to watch these kinds of stories in small rooms about the Baur family? My dream is to one day do a show about Simon Max, a comedian from Brussels from the interwar period. I’d love to play it myself. There are still so many stories to discover.”

“I know that many people outside Brussels and even inside Brussels no longer know the traditions. But if we lose the Meibom language, as well as the Brussels language, we lose a part of the city. Of course, politics is present in Brussels folklore. We open the Zuidfoor and Mayor Philippe Close is the same Gardeville. But I certainly wouldn’t call us politicians. It’s about representing Brussels, not glorifying traditions.”