On Sunday 21 September 2025, the City of Antwerp will once again make its centre car-free for the twenty-third edition of Antwerp Shift. Cars will give way to pedestrians, cyclists and other alternative modes of transport. Visitors will be able to discover a wide range of sustainable mobility options in a lively atmosphere.

This Sunday, the city centre will be car-free from 10 AM to 6 PM. The area affected stretches between Amsterdamstraat and Londenstraat, the Leien, Jan van Gentstraat, Waalsekaai and Scheldestraat. Much of the Scheldt Quays will also be closed to traffic.

Extensive programme

Antwerp Shift is a day dedicated to sustainable mobility in the city. Activities will take place on and around Operaplein, while Steenplein and Zuidpark will also host events.

The city has prepared a programme full of information, test circuits and attractive discounts from numerous mobility providers. In addition, there will be many fun and sporty side activities for young and old alike:

• Join the roller parade to the sounds of Club Vaag, or take a guided walk past some of the city’s most striking urban development projects and monuments.
• Visit Bazaar Bicyclette to pick up a vintage racing bike, bidon or cycling shirt.
• Enjoy music from DJ Bakfiets while customising your own bicycle.
• Consult Madame Modalité and Monsieur Mobilité to find out which mobility solutions await you in the future.

Alderman for Mobility Koen Kennis (N-VA) said: “Antwerp has hosted many fun and above all large events this summer. The many visitors prepared themselves well for their journeys and made good use of the guidance from slimnaarantwerpen.be. Everything went smoothly and safely as a result. On 21 September we are turning mobility itself into a celebration with the Antwerp Shift mobility festival. You can have your bike customised, test yourself on various circuits, and benefit from discounts from our mobility partners. You are most welcome in our city centre for a mobile journey of discovery!”

The full programme can be found at www.antwerpenshift.be.

Art and museums in Antwerp

• ANTWERP | Museum Plantin-Moretus highlights 300 years of women’s stories in ‘Women’s Business / Business Women’.
• Antwerp fashion museum MoMu will mark 40 years of The Antwerp Six with exhibition.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh opens exhibition ‘Public Favourites’, from Mad Meg to Delft Blue, look at art through other people’s eyes.
• ANTWERP | Museum Night 2025 on Saturday 2 August.
• ANTWERP | Middelheim Museum celebrates 75 years with a summer full of new ways to experience the art park.
• M HKA 2025 |​ Bruno Zhu – Panamarenko – ‘The Situation is Fluid’ – Today’s Place – Hugo Roelandt.
• ANTWERP | ‘These Branching Moments’ – ‘.tiff 2025′ – ”OM/MOTHER’: 3 new exhibitions at FOMU, from 28 June 2025.
• ANTWERP | ‘Panamarenko. Infinite Imagination’ exhibition until 4 May 2025 at KMSKA.
• ANTWERP | ‘Compassion’ in the MAS: the many faces of compassion.
• 2025 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2025 at Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp (KMSKA): René Magritte, Marthe Donas, Panamarenko, Hans Op de Beeck.
• ANTWERP | Graphics Museum De Reede ft. Francisco Goya, Edvard Munch, Félicien Rops and Albrecht Dürer.
• ANTWERP | Rubens Experience and Rubens Garden at Rubenshuis.
• Antwerp will have a new Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp M HKA.
• ANTWERP | Innovations in the Middelheim Museum provide a completely new visitor experience.
• A visit of the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum – Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM) in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Discovering queer(ed) art with the Queer Tour at the KMSKA fine arts museum.
• REVIEW | Illusion Antwerpen, an active and photogenic museum.
• Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.

On tourism

• ​City of Antwerp prepares crackdown on Airbnb growth amid complaints in Sint-Andries.
• ANTWERP SUMMER 2025 | 2.9 million day-trippers and 552,161 overnight stays.
• INDIA | Skyscanner sees rise of ‘shared experiences’ as travel trend.
• BELGIUM | Flight shame? Airports break records during 2025 summer season.
• Belgium sees record number of overnight stays via online platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.
• Antwerp 5th on 2025 Happy City Index.
• Visit Antwerp in a day or two.
• Flanders highlights Castles of the Brussels Green Belt.
• Tourism Flanders to tackle illegal Airbnb accommodations amidst housing shortage reality.
• Belgians choose safety, sustainability and convenience for summer travel: climate change, geopolitical instability and flight convenience shape 2025 holiday trends.
• OVERTOURISM | Alternatives for Venice, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Santorini, Paris, Dubrovnik, London and Rome?.
• Belgians book Asia, vintage travel and boutique hotels for spring and summer 2025.
• There’s more than one way to enjoy a cruise.
• SOLO TRAVEL | More expensive, but also some advantages.
• Flanders updates star classification for hotels.
• WINTER IN ANTWERP 2024-2025 | 1.3M visitors, 120K for New Year’s fireworks, 64.4% hotel occupancy.
• OPINION | Travelling on a package holiday.
• Are there too many hotels in Antwerp?.
• ANTWERP SUMMER 2024 | 2.7 million day tourists and 493K overnight stays.
• 2024 | Twice as many Belgians will travel by train this summer.
• Spain saw a surge of Belgians visiting in the first quarter of 2024.
• Antwerp number 1 of 40 most exciting cities to visit in 2024.
• Antwerp’s municipal museums welcomed over 1.5 million visitors in 2023.
• CLIMATE CHANGE & TRAVEL | Is Belgium ready to be the Spain and Italy of the future?.
• Condé Nast Traveler praises Antwerp as one of the Best Places to Go in 2024 in Europe.
• Flanders’ art cities residents still proud of their city, but highlight drawbacks of tourism more
• Antwerp hotel industry demands stricter rules and enforcement for Airbnb as business tourism is not recovering.
• ANTWERP | 13.5 million day tourists, 2.6 million overnight stays and less Dutch visitors in 2023.
• ANTWERP | 2022 tourism statistics show recovery towards 2019 numbers.
• City happy with Winter in Antwerp 2022-2023 edition.
• City sees Winter in Antwerp 2023-2024 breaking attendance records.
• Belgians make 4.5 million day trips to Antwerp every year.
• ANTWERP | 2.2 million day tourists and 398K overnight stays in the summer of 2023.
• ANTWERP | 2 million day tourists and 337K overnight stays in the summer of 2022.
• Belgians travelled massively in the first quarter of 2022.
• The Major Flaws of domestic tourism in Belgium.
• Discovering Belgium and the Netherlands in COVID times.

Some tourism statistics

• 5 million passengers flew from and to Brussels Airport in summer 2025.
• BELGIUM | Flemish museums attracted more than 4.8 million visitors in 2023.
• Belgium sees modest tourism growth in 2024, led by Flanders and Brussels.
• Travel in 2024: Spain, France, USA, China, Mexico lose ground and Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, UAE to grow market share.
• France, Spain, USA, China and Italy most visited countries in the world, Belgium 41st.
• France welcomed 100 million international visitors in 2024.
• Turkey welcomed 62 million international tourists who together spent $61 billion in 2024.
• SPAIN | 94 million international visitors and €108.7 billion tourism income in 2024.
• UN WORLD TOURISM BAROMETER | International tourism recovers pre-pandemic levels in 2024.
• Outside the EU, Europeans mostly travel to Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
• Intra-European travel mostly for fun and / or family.
• Europeans visit other European countries over 7 nights on average.