Darklands 2025 is over and will be renamed Beyond Darklands Festival Antwerp for 2026. In a reel published on social media, the Antwerp kink and fetish festival for men who have sex with men, Darklands organiser Jeroen Van Lievenoogen points to challenging times to organise the event.

“We are here to celebrate fifteen years of Darklands”, Jeroen says in the clip. Darklands had the opportunity to hold an opening reception at Antwerp City Hall. Which makes his comments quite remarkable.

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“Darklands is not just a festival. It’s an example of how inclusivity and responsibility can go hand in hand. It shows how we can create an environment where where people feel welcome or where people can explore their sexual identity and are able to connect safely. And I’m very grateful that our city is welcoming us here today”, Jeroen said at the opening of the Darklands weekend.

“This city hall should symbolise transparancy, cooperation and equal treatment. But let’s be honest, that’s not entirely how it feels right now. In recent weeks, we faced rules that unnecessarily complicated our work. Rules that no other event has ever been subjected to.”

“We were treated as a risk, where we should have been seen as allies. This is not a misunderstanding anymore. This is a pattern. And this pattern fits into a broader global trend. More and more, we see groups who deviate from the norm being pressured again. Sometimes very subtle, sometimes openly.”

“But the message is always the same: become invisible, conform, stay within the lines. Our rights are being questioned and dismantled… globally. Let us be clear. We will not go back. We refuse to be shoved back into the basement of the closet. We will not be pushed back into the shadows.

“Our fetish and kink community is here and we are staying. We will not become invisible.” 

“I myself will be one of many, if needed, to build barricades again, to claim our rights and to be treated as equal. We are here, we will stay and will allways fight for our right to exist.”

Unnecessary rules?

Which “unnecessary rules”? The speech also included: “A few weeks before the event, new rules were imposed on Darklands by the Event Safety Advisory Committee of Antwerp. Without any consultation, bureaucrats submitted a file to the Federal Public Health Department to assess the risk analysis. The outcome? The request for absolutely insane safety measures that even had Tomorowland‘s safety coordinator laughing out loud. As if Darklands and its visitors pose a danger.”

Asked for clarification, Jeroen says he can’t expand on which exact safety measures were imposed on Darklands, but he calls them “at first absurd and after negociations still exaggerated”.

These measures were imposed by the Event Safety Advisory Committee, and not by the city council.

“The times we live in require a considered choice in what we say and do as a community”, Jeroen says.

This blogpost was update on 14 March, after receiving clarifications by Darklands organiser Jeroen Van Lievenoogen.

Darklands 2025-2026

• GAY ANTWERP | Darklands 2026 becomes Beyond Darklands.
• GAY ANTWERP | Darklands 2026 changes name and concept, but keeps Waagnatie as venue.
• Darklands 2025 aims at actively welcoming FLINTA people.
• DARKLANDS 2025 | Programme & schedule highlights.
• Darklands 2025 drops token payment system in favour of top-up Darkband.
• ANTWERP | Darklands to leave Waagnatie after 2025.
• Darklands 2025 from Tuesday 25 February until Monday 3 March.
• Darklands 2025 theme: ‘Darklands Glows’, stays at Waagnatie until 2030.

Antwerp Pride 2025 & Antwerp Queer Arts Festival 2025

• Antwerp Queer Arts Festival broadens horizon to Bruges and Leuven.
• Antwerp Pride 2025 from Wednesday 6 to Sunday 10 August.

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• Antwerp Queer Arts Festival from 3 to 31 August 2024: programme.