At Vandonghen, the winners of our test for the best croustillon of the 2023 edition of the fair, the observation is bitter. “We’re back from Mechelen. With this weather, it’s complicated. Especially for open trades like ours. Attendance is dropping 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 Porte d’Anderlecht.
©D.R.
With its food stand, the family also had to deal with the increase in food costs. “We had to increase our prices between 2023 and 2024. It’s very slight, we try to limit it as much as possible for customers. But we had to do it.” So of course, “we are now banking on the Foire du Midi. The advantage is that the fair is not lost. It is 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 on the other side of the Anderlecht Gate, further out, on the Arts et Métiers side, the situation is even more complicated. Nathalie, from the Montélimar confectionery, has 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 her most is her location. “We’ve been here for four years. Before, we were near the bridge (towards Avenue de Stalingrad), but with the metro works, they put us 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 turnover I made there.”
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The city of Brussels offers a reduction on the price of the location to fairground operators relocated after the Porte d’Anderlecht, “but it is a reduction on the price of our old location. In concrete terms, the most expensive are towards Porte de Hal and the prices decrease up to the Porte d’Anderlecht, explains Nathalie. But since I had a good location before, even with the reduction, I still pay more than those who are just before the Porte d’Anderlecht and therefore better placed than me.”
Walter, for his part, has not changed his prices. His family, the Dotremonts, manage 18 attractions at the fair. For his part, he is in charge of a coin-operated amusement arcade. “Obviously, costs are increasing. But we also know that it is hard on customers’ wallets.”
The fairground worker confirms the trend: “The start of the season wasn’t great. I’ve just come back from Antwerp, we had terrible weather. But the good news is that as soon as there was a ray of sunshine, people went straight back to the fair. Now for the season, we’re counting on this Midi fair. Brussels is the high point, it’s right in the middle of the holidays.”
©Bernard Demoulin
All agree that the tradition of the fair is well anchored in the hearts of the public. Now it remains to be seen whether the weather will allow it to beat last year’s million visitors.
Terrace of Discord
It’s not just the fairground workers who look forward to the Foire du Midi. The local shopkeepers also play a big part of their annual turnover during these six weeks. This is the case for Sebastiana who runs the Soly Sombra restaurant on Boulevard du Midi.
©Bernard Demoulin
For a few months now, the sidewalks have been being redone in front of her shop, as well as for an entire section of the boulevard. The work was supposed to be completed on July 5. Perfect for the fair, then. But it was a failure. On July 3, Sebastiana saw the workers pack up and leave a sidewalk under construction, full of dust and barely passable. “So I ordered some carpets and asked the municipality for permission to install them in order to have a more or less accessible terrace. I was refused because, in the regulations, you can’t install this type of material. I alerted the press and finally the municipality found a solution by installing a sort of pallet floor. This Saturday morning, people arrived to install it. I had asked for 50 m2. They arrived with 2 m2. Finally, by calling the alderman (of Economic Affairs and the Fair, Benhur Ergen, Editor’s note), we managed to find some stock but it was still not enough for the whole terrace.
©Bernard Demoulin
Contacted, the alderman’s office assured us that measures were being taken to authorize these temporary arrangements and that the floor would be put in place for Sebastiana’s restaurant, as well as for two others affected by the problem, by Monday at the latest. A solution that is not ideal for Sebastiana but which allows the fair period to be saved. “I make 70% of my annual turnover during this period. I even know of 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 assures that it contacted Brussels Mobility, which is in charge of the construction site, well before the fair to ensure that everything would be ready on time. This was not possible and it was the city of Brussels (via a municipal non-profit organisation) that put its hand in its pocket to find the necessary equipment for these temporary terraces and to install them.
