The 25th edition of Brussels' Open Monuments Day will take place in the Brussels Capital Region on 14 and 15 September 2013 with the theme “Brussel, m’as-tu vu “.

Theatres and concert halls, cinemas, dancing venues and ballrooms, jazz clubs, cafés, taverns and private clubs, exhibition spaces, shopping arcades and department stores, hotels, parks, sports clubs, racecourses and contemporary ‘hotspots’ with heritage value open their doors then.

The AB, with its glorious past as concert hall, couldn't be absent from the programme of course.

We have organised the following route especially for the occasion:

In the AB Club, once the Bar Américain, you can set yourself upon the historical stage where bands like The Black Eyed Peas, Editors, Wilco, The White Stripes, Soulwax or Adele once played.
From there, the route leads you to the Main Hall, the historic beating heart of the complex.
Via the Main Hall, you end up in the Agora. There, AB-personnel provide more information about the history and activities of the Ancienne Belgique (at 2pm and 4pm (nl) and at 2:30pm and 4:30pm (fr)).
In the Agora and the AB Cafe/Resto we also display a fine selection of archive photos, old posters and a documentary on the history of the Ancienne Belgique.
On this occasion the exit will be via the AB Cafe/Resto, which faces the Steenstraat, where the original entrance was.

Please note that there is no backstage visit possible on these days.

Taste a Kriek Belle-Vue

As cherry on top, that weekend we will present every visitor with a voucher that allows the first 1000 customers in the AB Café who purchase a Kriek Belle-Vue to receive a 2nd one free. Kriek Belle-Vue has namely been around for 100 years. A historical anniversary, one to toast to!

More info about other monuments in Brussels that open their doors on this weekend:

www.openmonumentendagenbrussel.be

To illustrate the fabulous years of French chanson in AB, this wonderful documentary about Claude François, who appeared here many times. In the AB he shocked the audience with his Claudettes and in 1968 he opened a registered package from Frank Sinatra in his dressing room. In it sat his recording of My Way, a translation by Paul Anka of Cloclo’s fantastic Comme d’habitude.