Urban ceremonies, village weddings and kermesses, court and kings' festivals: this exhibition explores the Flemish festivities of the 16th and 17th centuries through the prism of collective entertainment in public space.
Illustrating the festival sometimes as a social ritual and as an outlet in times of epidemic or war, sometimes as a moral and political vector, the course, of exceptional wealth, will gather nearly 100 paintings, engravings, drawings and realia mainly from Belgian and French institutions, and other international museums.
The first to list and address all types of festivals, the exhibition will take visitors into a world whose traditions and values are still echoed in this region today.

This exhibition is designed by the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille in an exceptional partnership with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Louvre Museum, Paris. It is co-produced with GrandPalaisRmn as part of the Fiesta de lille3000 season and has the support of the Delegation of Flanders in France. It is carried out thanks to the main sponsorship of the Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe Foundation and Apfte ank.

COMMISSIONER GENERAL
Juliette Singer, Director of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille and the Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse.
SCIENTIFIC COMMISSIONERS
Blaise Ducos, Chief Curator, responsible for Flemish and Dutch paintings at the Louvre Museum, and Sabine van Sprang, Conservatrice of Flemish painting 1550-1650 at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Belgium.
Presented from 26 April to 31 August 2025, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille