At Vandonghen, the winners of our test for the best crisp of the 2023 edition of the fair, the observation is bitter. “We’re coming back from Mechelen. With this weather, it’s complicated. Especially for open jobs like ours. Attendance drops directly. It’s not so much the cold or the wind. People put on a sweater. But the rain , it blocks everyone,” Kenny explains to us behind his counter located just before the Anderlecht gate.
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With their food stand, the family also had to deal with increasing food costs. “We had to increase our prices between 2023 and 2024. It’s very light, we try to limit it as much as possible for customers. But we had to do it.” So obviously, “we’re now banking on the Foire du Midi. The advantage is that the fair doesn’t get lost. It’s passed down from generation to generation. As soon as the weather is nice, it fills up. Look here : we’ve been open for an hour, there’s already a nice queue.”
For those who are on the other side of the Anderlecht gate, more eccentric, on the Arts et Métiers side, the situation becomes even more complicated. Nathalie, from the Montélimar confectionery, also suffered from the bad weather. “It’s been since last October. And with the prices of gas and sugar, I had to, for the first time in 10 years, increase the prices on certain products.” But what worries him most is its location. “We have been living here for four years. Before, we were near the bridge (towards Stalingrad Avenue), but with the metro work, we were put here”: a place with less traffic than the rest of the fair despite the presence of big attractions like the Turbine or the XXL. “It’s simple, here, I only make 40% of the figure I did there.”
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The city of Brussels offers a reduction on the price of the location to the fairgrounds relocated after the Porte d’Anderlecht, “but it is a reduction on the price of our old location. Concretely, the most expensive are towards Porte de Hal and the prices decrease up to the Anderlecht gate, explains Nathalie But since I had a good location before, even with the reduction, I still pay more than those just before the Anderlecht gate and therefore better. placed than me.”
Walter has not changed his prices. His family, the Dotremonts, manages 18 attractions at the fair. For his part, he is in charge of a coin arcade. “Obviously, costs are increasing. But we also know that it is difficult for customers’ wallets.”
The showman confirms the trend: “The start of the season wasn’t great. I just came back from Antwerp, we had terrible weather. But the good news is that as soon as there was a ray of sunshine , people go straight to the fair Now for the season, we are counting on this Brussels fair, it’s the highlight, it’s right during the holidays.
©Bernard Demoulin
Everyone agrees that the tradition of the fair is well anchored in the hearts of the public. It now remains to be seen whether the weather will beat last year’s million visitors.
Terrace of Discord
It’s not just the fairgrounds who impatiently await the Foire du Midi. The neighborhood’s traders also play a large part of their annual turnover during these six weeks. This is the case of Sebastiana who runs the Soly Sombra restaurant on Boulevard du Midi.
©Bernard Demoulin
For several months, the sidewalks have been being resurfaced in front of his business as well as for an entire section of the boulevard. The project was to be completed on July 5. Perfect for the fair. But it failed. On July 3, Sebastiana saw the workers packing up, leaving a sidewalk under construction, full of dust and barely passable. “So I ordered carpets and asked for permission from the municipality to install them in order to have a more or less accessible terrace. This was refused to me since, in the regulations, we cannot install this type of material. I alerted the press and finally the municipality found a solution by installing a kind of pallet flooring. This Saturday morning, people arrived to install it. They arrived with 2 m2. Finally by calling the alderman (of Economic Affairs and the Fair, Benhur Ergen, Editor’s note), we manage to find stock but it is not yet enough for the entire terrace.
©Bernard Demoulin
Contacted, the alderman’s office assures us that it is taking measures to authorize these temporary arrangements and that the floor will be put in place for Sebastiana’s restaurant but also for two others affected by the problem, by this Monday at the latest. A solution which is not ideal for Sebastiana but which saves the period of the fair. “I make 70% of my annual turnover during this period. I even know owners a little further away who only open their bar during the Foire du Midi. We wait for this moment for 11 months.”
The city claims to have relaunched Brussels Mobility, in charge of the site, well before the fair to ensure that everything is ready on time. This was not possible and it was the city of Brussels (via a municipal non-profit organization) which put its hands into its wallet to find the necessary equipment for these temporary terraces and to install them.
