The festival
In May 2003, on the occasion of the 50th Django’s death commemoration, the Pont-à-Celles commune in collaboration with the Pays de Geminiacum association decided to organise an ambitious cultural event, the «Django@Liberchies» Festival, meant to be a one-off event. After the great success of its first edition, the organisers took the decision to repeat this event every year till nowadays.
The « Django à Liberchies » Festival is a big event, aimed at jazz lovers as well as at music fans and family audience and takes place every year since 2003 for one weekend in May.
This festival is not only a musical event: besides the gypsy jazz programme, «Django@Liberchies» festival offers you a wonderful range of activities around the stage. It’s what we call the «Djang’Off»! Street performances, brass bands, music initiation workshops, exhibition, etc.
Last but not least, two guided visits are organised permitting festival-goers to discover the places linked to Django’s live.
Djang’Off
At the same time as the concerts take place, a cultural party is held: the «Djang’Off». Liberchies’ pedestrianized streets echo with stories reading, creative workshops, fairground shows and musical stall. All these activities focus on the themes the musician was fond of: jazz, guitar, travelling people, freedom, etc.
The «Djang’Off» activities allow tourists and family audience to discover the rural charm of the little village of Liberchies and to taste local products in the reception area of Liberchies’ Museum.
Django Reinhardt’s museum hall
Open in 2010 for the 100th anniversary of Django’s birth, the museum hall dedicate to the musician traces guitarist’s life through his work and the famous people he met with.
Enriched with many donations, notably Marc Danval’s and Titi Bamberger’s ones, the hall contains an important collection of LP and 78. A rich photo gallery as well as articles detail every stage of Django Reinhardt’s life, notably about his visit in Brussels in 1942.
(+ see also: the Wikipedia page about Django@Liberchies Festival)