FKP Scorpio Belgium has cancelled its Antwerp-based festival Live is Live for 2025.

“It is with a heavy heart that we must announce that Live is Live will not take place this year,” organisers said in a press release.

“Over the past three years, we have built a festival that has acquired a permanent place in the rich Belgian festival calendar. After careful consideration, we have decided that we cannot fully meet our own high standards this year.

“Despite the tireless efforts of our team and the desire to create something special, we cannot offer a programme this year that fully reflects the vision of Live is Live. That is why we choose to skip an edition. This is not a farewell, until 2026.”

Live is Live launched in the summer of 2022 as a three-day affair on the beach of Zeebrugge, Bruges, and has since undergone many changes.

For its second edition, Live is Live moved to Park Middenvijver in Antwerp in a condensed format as organisers “were able to offer a strong programme for only two days”.

“We cannot offer a programme this year that fully reflects the vision of Live is Live”

This year, the festival returned to Park Middenvijver with a three-day format, headlined by The National, The Smashing Pumpkins and Paulo Nutini.

Other acts that have performed at the festival include Gossip, Interpol, Sheryl Crow, Ben Howard, Passenger and Mogwai.

Despite the absence of the festival, Park Middenvijver will still host live music this summer with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran becoming the first artist to perform a solo show.

Live is Live is the largest and best-known Belgian festival to be cancelled in 2025 after a number of smaller events were axed.

Rock Ternat, a two-day festival that was launched in 1993 and has hosted both national and international acts, has come to an end.

Organisers said rising costs and pressure on volunteers had become untenable for the festival. The Ternat-based festival has hosted international acts including The Used, Trivium, CKY and Arch Enemy.

Elsewhere, it was recently announced that two-day domestic festival Buikrock in West Flanders had gone bankrupt after issues with its payment system Bancontact.

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Belgium’s Live is Live is the latest festival to expand by a day for 2024, following similar announcements from Austria’s Nova Rock and Spain’s Mad Cool.

Live is Live, promoted by FKP Scorpio Belgium, has also announced two headliners for the event: The National and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Last year, the event moved from Zeebrugge in Bruges to Linkerover in Antwerp, where it will once again take place in 2024 between 28 and 30 June.

“Three festival days, that was always the intention’

“Three festival days, that was always the intention,” Jan Digneffe of FKP Scorpio Belgium told GVA. “Last year that was not possible because we were able to offer a strong programme for only two days. This will be in line with that of the previous edition. The National already played at our first edition in Zeebrugge but this time they will perform a full set of two and a half hours. It will be an incredible experience for the fans.”

Discussing further changes to the festival, Digneffe added: “We have been able to take a good look at the previous edition. Because it was so hot, and we were all puffing away, we wanted to optimise the site in that sense. One of the two dog ponds on the Middenvijver will be added to our festival site, as will a group of trees that can provide more shade. This way we provide more space for visitors.”

Live is Live will announce more acts in the coming months.

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