Fêtes de Wallonie

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On Saturday, I went with Magali and Ludger to Namur (which is about 30 minutes south of Brussels) for Fêtes de Wallonie. Fêtes de Wallonie is a huge party that takes place all over the French-speaking part of Belgium. It is celebrated on the third weekend of September and usually runs from Thursday to Monday. It commemorates the participation of the Walloons in the Belgian revolution of 1830 and is a huge celebration of the French-speaking regions of Belgium. Since Namur is the capital of the Wallonie region (French-speaking region), it has the biggest celebration.
We arrived in Namur around 3:00pm and all of the streets of Namur were filled with tents of food, drinks, clothing, shoes, jewelry, and games. They had tons of live music, street performers, bands, and stilt walkers. All through the streets they serve little shots called 'peckets' and they come in many different flavours (like strawberry, apple, mint, mojito, mocha, fruit punch, etc.), but consist of the same type of alcohol. Magali, Ludger and I wandered around the streets for a while, had a few drinks and then met up with Magali's cousin and some friends from school. Magali attended university in Namur, so she knew a lot of people there and also knew the good places to go!
Later on that evening, more of the university students came to the streets to party and there were several concerts throughout the night. It was packed though! We went to a concert at Place St. Aubain because Helen Segara was performing and she is one of Magali's favourite French singers. It was great! I'm still in awe of how many people were there and how big this event was, but it was definitely an event not to be missed!

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Photos

Stilt Walkers
They all gather in a circle and try to knock each other off their stilts. It goes on until there is only one left standing.

My peckets!
(they're in the shape of the atomium)