ANTWERP QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL 2026

“We’ve been doing this for 13 years”, Antwerp Queer Arts Festival says. Since 2013, AQAF organises a queer, more edgy, more ‘alternative’, less polished, less gentrified (?) festival for LGBTQIA+ people in the summer. It runs alongside Antwerp Pride.

Antwerp Queer Arts Festivals organises a ‘Kusjesdans‘ or ‘Kissing Dance‘ on the tunes of ‘La Bamba‘ at Zuidpark, next to the Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA), on Saturday 8 August.

The free event, running from 14:00 to 15:00, recreates the atmosphere of the traditional slow dance at the end of a party. Organisers say anyone who remembers nervously waiting for the right moment to dance with someone they had admired all evening will recognise the feeling.

Participants will be encouraged to dance together during a series of slow songs before sharing a kiss in public. According to the organisers, the event is intended as both a celebration of queer joy and a statement of visibility.

They stress that queer people should be able to express affection openly not only during Antwerp Pride, but every day of the year. A public kiss, they add, remains “an act of resistance” at a time when LGBTQIA+ people still face discrimination and hostility in many places.

The organisers invite everyone to join the event, dance, and “kiss whoever you want to kiss” in a safe and welcoming atmosphere.

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ANTWERP QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL 2026 | Good old-fashioned ‘La Bamba’ Kusjesdans / Kissing Dance at Zuidpark on Saturday 8 August

Antwerp Pride 2026-2027