Glow
Since 2018, Festival of Flanders Mechelen has been exploring the universe of timeless music under the name LUNALIA. From the 2026 edition onwards, Jelle Dierickx has passed the torch to Mathias Coppens, who will tend the flame under the motto ‘Glow’.
The Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz writes: ‘The red flame of eroticism raises and feeds another flame, tremulous and blue: the flame of love.’ Lunalia celebrates that fiery vitality. We honour fire as a primordial force and cosmic vibration, but also the warmth that connects. ‘Accademia del Piacere’ is our ensemble in residence: a Spanish fury as the life-giving heart of the festival. But there’s also Latin American passion from ‘Musica Temprana’ and the breathtaking sensuality of Buenos Aires in the music of ‘Sonico’.
There is no passion without compassion. The living legend Pēteris Vasks has composed a new work that will come to life in the warm hands of Casco Phil and the Vlaams Radiokoor. Flames bring people together, and ‘Bel Ayre’ proves that with the neighbourhood project ‘La Strada’.
Last but not least, Brecht Valckenaers has composed a response to Skriabin’s iconic ‘Vers la Flamme’. Allow yourself to be warmed by the glowing passions of Tutu Puoane, Maya Fridman, Charlotte Wajnberg, Laurence Servaes and many others, in the city of the Maneblussers, the people who tried to extinguish the moon!
With Accademia del Piacere, Mechels Kamerorkest, Pēteris Vasks, Musica Temprana, Bel Ayre Quartet, Alvin Curran, Vlaams Radiokoor, Heleen van Haegenborgh, Tutu Puoane, Lyyra, Elias D’hooghe Trio, KLANG Collective, Laurence Servaes, Brecht Valckenaers, Charlotte Wajnberg, Sonico, Casco Phil, Maya Fridman, Roots of Juniper and many more.