MIXITY.brussels: The city is set to celebrate its Zinneke heritage in 2017

Diversity is to be the theme for activities that will unite the city’s different communities, announced VisitBrussels at a press conference in the presence of Brussels politicians on Monday.

In a rare move, Belgium’s regions and language communities have joined Brussels’ tourist bureau for the project. The theme was chosen a year ago but now has greater resonance following the bomb attacks in March, said Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort: “They showed our weaknesses but also our strengths and this includes Molenbeek. Now we have to show the world that diversity is also our strength,” he said.

Since the explosions and the security alert last autumn, Belgium has suffered a serious drop in visitor numbers. The campaign for 2017 is aimed at bringing tourists back to the city and engaging them in community life. A concert meetMIXITY organised on 30 September will give the public a chance to discover five major events planned for 2017. They have yet to be finalised, but will include hip-hop, choirs and urban art. Six events already on Brussels’ cultural calendar will adopt the diversity theme, among them, Couleur Café music festival, the opening of the House of European History, the temporary exhibition ‘Islam, is also our history’, the re-opening of the Royal Museum of Central Africa and an exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Belgium.

Additional initiatives to link community associations include guided tours and recruiting new multilingual MIXITY greeters to welcome visitors to the city. A series of MIXITY Awards will reward the best associations and cultural and sporting organisations. The diversity slogan encompasses freedom of sexual orientation, accessibility for people with reduced mobility and co-existence of different religions. The €3m campaign is being financed by the regional governments.

Counting 183 nationalities among its growing 1.2m population, Brussels is the second most cosmopolitan city in the world. Multiculturalism has long been part of its DNA with residents self-styling themselves Zinnekes, a dialect name for a mongrel dog and reference to the Senne/Zenne canal that flows through the city.

Brussels’ changing multicultural identity was outlined by VUB cultural philosopher Eric Corijn, who said the number of “new Belgians” and foreigners was continuing to rise due to immigration and the influx of international workers to the capital of Europe. Corijn likened Brussels to a Tower of Babel with statistics showing that almost two thirds of the city’s population actively speak more than one language. “Nationality mix characterises the city,” he said. “The major stake is to bring communities together in a new idea of citizenship that puts the city before nationality, uniting in diversity.”