Can Kamping Kerosine turn Zurenborg’s former De Lijn depot into Antwerp’s next cultural landmark?

The organisers’ practical page says the festival takes place at Pretoriastraat 1 in the Antwerp district of Berchem. There will be free bicycle parking, food and drink stalls and a bar serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Visitors may bring their own drinks, an unusual survival from the festival’s informal beginnings, but glass bottles and containers are prohibited. Alcohol is sold only to people aged 18 or over.

The grounds are described by the organisers as relatively flat and entirely at ground level. Anyone who needs mobility assistance should nevertheless contact the festival beforehand, since a repurposed transport depot is not the same as a purpose-built accessible venue. There are no lockers and no campsite or accommodation attached to the event. Re-entry is permitted in principle, although the organisers warn that it cannot be guaranteed if crowd-management or other operational conditions change.

Under-18s must attend with a parent or legal guardian. The organisers say the event is designed primarily for adults and advise hearing protection for younger visitors; free earplugs are expected to be available. Their published safety policy also promises zero tolerance for violence, harassment and discrimination and asks visitors to treat consent as explicit and continuing.

For travel information, use the official De Lijn journey planner or app for Flemish buses and trams and the SNCB-NMBS planner for trains. De Lijn warns that services can change because of roadworks, diversions, industrial action or events, so a route saved weeks in advance should be checked again on the day. International residents should note the language split: De Lijn and the City of Antwerp

Organisation

City of Antwerp

Municipal authority responsible for the site and its temporary neighbourhood uses.

Why it matters

Municipal authority responsible for the site and its temporary neighbourhood uses.

About

Antwerp is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest municipality in Belgium by area at 208.22 km2 (80.39 sq mi). With a population of 565,039, it is the most populous municipality in Belgium, and with a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million people, the country's second-largest metropolitan area after Brussels.

Official site ↗View source record ↗

De Halte opened on 14 August with a mirror tent and a programme intended to give young artists and neighbourhood initiatives a platform, Het Nieuwsblad reported. It was created by local art graduates Roos de Buysscher and Pjotr Durlet, with support reported at €20,000 from Antwerp’s culture portfolio and €5,000 from the district of Berchem. The venue has also restored a visible literary connection to Zurenborg by displaying Herman De Coninck’s poem ‘Thuis’, previously mounted near the bridge at Draakplaats.

The wider site is now controlled by the City of Antwerp through its property agency AG VESPA. A city decision approved on 3 June says De Lijn’s temporary use ended in September 2025 and authorises up to three event organisers on the outdoor grounds during July, August and September 2026. The same official record identifies important constraints: parts of the buildings have safety defects, access to some areas requires supervision, and a soil-remediation investigation involving De Lijn, Tersana and OVAM is due to reach its preliminary stage by September 2026. The festival’s presence therefore should not be read as unrestricted public access to the entire depot.

The city presents temporary activity as a way to make the large site livelier and safer while the Nieuw Zurenborg planning process develops. Its plans also include space for a works depot, temporary accommodation for primary school De Kleine Wereldburger and, from October, a disruption-mitigation car park for eligible neighbourhood residents during works in Transvaalstraat. De Standaard reported in 2020 that the city had agreed to acquire the depot land as part of a roughly ten-hectare redevelopment area adjoining the former gasworks.

That produces two legitimate expectations. Festival-goers and independent cultural organisers see a rare chance to use a dramatic piece of industrial infrastructure before redevelopment. Nearby residents and future site users, meanwhile, have reason to expect careful management of noise, traffic, safety and environmental restrictions. The City of Antwerp’s formal emphasis is on neighbourhood-oriented use and greening, while Kamping Kerosine’s identity is built around a larger underground audience. How comfortably those purposes coexist will be part of the test.

For now, the confirmed date, address, opening time and base ticket price are enough to plan around. The important missing pieces are the line-up, detailed timetable, closing time and any final access arrangements. Visitors should consult kampingkerosine.be and the official transport planners again shortly before 12 September. After the festival, De Halte is scheduled to continue only until 26 September; the city then moves toward a longer temporary-use partnership while the permanent future of Nieuw Zurenborg remains several years away.