WECANDANCE is an annual open-air festival on the beach of Zeebrugge, Belgium. Taking place in mid-August since 2013, the festival has become a part of holidays to the Belgian seaside for many. The first edition of WECANDANCE took place in 2013; in 2023, we’re celebrating our 10 year anniversary on Saturday 5, Sunday 6 and Saturday 12 and Sunday the 13th of August.

Flanked by dunes and the North Sea, WECANDANCE is mainly known for its domineering landscape, spectacular sea views, gloomy sunsets and yearly theme. As a festival, we try to not only focus on music but seek new culinary experiences and gain our overall inspiration from the fashion industry. We love getting out of our comfort zone and shaking things up in the festival world each year a little more.

— Speed date with us:

Location: Belgium, Zeebrugge (Bruges)

Decorated festival area: 27500m²

Genres: Hip hop, techno, desert house & disco, all-round, slow dance and live acts

Stages: seven in 2023

Artists: 150+

First edition: 2013, with 5500 visitors

Last edition: 2022, with 58 500 visitors

MUSIC — We aim to invite diverse and welcoming national and international artists to our lineup. Our artists are divided over multiple stages, representing musical genres such as amapiano, hip hop, techno, house & disco, minimal, all-round, desert house and live music. Each year, local and international stage partners join us on the beach to dance with our feet in the sand.

 FOOD — It’s been in our DNA since 2013 to break the rules a little regarding the food and drinks we serve. A little innovation and a lot of non–traditional festival food: we like to push boundaries in culinary terms. Think of high-quality, sustainable, local ingredients and a wide variety of vegan, vegetarian and halal festival food with gastronomic accents.

FASHION — Inspired by looks that debuted in fashion shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris, we submerge our visitors in a renewed experience each edition! Our yearly theme determines each year’s new decoration, setting and atmosphere of the 27500m² beach we dance on. WECANDANCE is a festival to rediscover year after year; we hope you fall in love with us over and over again.

“We introduced these themes ten years ago to inspire our visitors to bring out the best in their selves and celebrate their individuality. Beauty and fashion are about feeling confident and free; clothes are designed to empower and express yourself. It’s one of the only festivals where people dress up, making it a more festive experience to look forward to. For our team, it’s a blessing to re-create every aspect and little detail of the festival year after year. Attending and creating WECANDANCE will always be a unique experience.” 

We’re not a dress code-required festival; we aim to create an experience where our fashion-forward crowd feels free to wear whatever they want and be unapologetically themselves. Let our theme be your inspiration to come as you are.

FEELING FREE = FEELING SAFE

As an organization, we do what we do to offer all our visitors an experience that generates the feeling of being free. Freedom is a feeling of relief, bliss and being able to be yourself; these are all irreversibly linked to feeling safe, supported and respected. We hope everyone on our beach has an amazing time with us. As part of our festival community, we expect everyone entering our beach to respect one another and act supportive. We don’t do rules at WECANDANCE; we have expectations; read them in full through this link.

 We strive to thoroughly place inclusion, equity and diversity at the heart of everything we do. WECANDANCE seeks to represent a balanced and honest reflection of society in selecting our organizing team, bar staff, security, artists, collaborating freelancers and anyone else involved. At WECANDANCE, we aim to make everyone feel welcome, heard and valued. Need more information, help or do you have anything to add? Please contact impact@wecandance.be!

GROWING GREEN

To ensure the future of our festival, we need to keep the beach and our natural environment as clean as possible. It’s quite the task being a festival on the beach, but we are dedicated to growing more each edition, making small and big efforts one step at a time. We ask our visitors to be kind to each other, so why not be kind to our beach too? Read all about our path to growing green here.