KunstenFESTIVALdesArts - Brussels Introduction | Permanent team | Board of directors | Support | Sponsoring The kunstenFESTIVALdesArts – first staged in May 1994 by Frie Leysen, founder of Antwerp’s De Singel – is now considered as one of the great festivals in Europe, on a par with Festival d'Avignon, Festival d'Automne à Paris, the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna, the Holland Festival in Amsterdam or the Edinburgh Festival. It is an ambitious arts event, offering the public around 100 performances from Belgium and elsewhere, featuring theatre, dance, opera, cinema, video and the plastic arts. The Festival’s unusual spelling is taken from the bilingual signs usually seen on the streets and metro of Brussels and symbolises perfectly an arts event that unites different communities. The Festival is an event of the arts and of society. It is funded by Belgium’s two main language communities, Flemish and French-speaking – the first major project in a federalised Belgium to have the backing of both groups. The Festival takes place every other year in around 20 Brussels venues. The fifth kunstenFESTIVALdesArts is in May 2000 and will be one of the capital’s major cultural events.