Best of Brussels in September 2026.

Is it just us, or does summer already feel like a distant memory? 🙂 We’re officially back in Brussels mode – and we’ve got a little something for everyone who’s already craving more city inspiration. Keep reading!

The new edition of our print magazine is finally here. Perfect for your coffee table and filled with inspiration from across the city, it’s your guide to discovering more of Brussels. Grab your free copy at 100+ locations across the city. Find the list of pick-up points here.

Don’t miss this month:
Opera Open Doors at La Monnaie on 5 September: discover one of the capital’s most beautiful hidden gems during a full day of free concerts, tours and events.

Brussels Art Square showcases rich artistic heritage of Sablon, one of the city’s most authentic neighbourhoods. If you haven’t yet explored its galleries, antique shops and hidden art gems, now is the perfect time to discover what’s around the corner. Celebrate 21 years of artistic excellence from 24 to 27 September, with over 55 Belgian and international galleries opening their doors to collectors, art lovers, and the wider public. From archaeology to contemporary art, visitors can explore 4,000 years of creativity through paintings, sculptures, furniture, jewelry, and more – all in one of Europe’s most historic art districts.

This month brings 38th edition of Heritage Days, an annual celebration of region’s tangible and intangible heritage, and a chance to explore hidden gems rarely open to the public. This year’s theme: Our landscape, our legacy. On 19 & 20 September.

Get ready: Car-Free Sunday takes place on 20 September. From 9:30 am to 7 pm, the entire Brussels-Capital Region will become a vast space dedicated to pedestrians, cyclists and other users of soft mobility.

Why Art Matters: TheMerode exceptionally opens its doors to the public for the second edition of Art Day on 12 September. This unique event offers a day of exhibitions, talks, guided tours and encounters, including Peter Lindbergh expo curated specifically for TheMerode; Marc Spiegler in conversation with Kendell Geers; ‘Works on Paper’ by David Shrigley; a live concert by soprano Elise Caluwaerts and The Now Collective; the monumental sculpture ‘Must Be’ by Tony Cragg, and much more.

Cinema lovers, Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) is in town until 12 September. Expect premieres, encounters, discoveries, and powerful emotions during eclectic, thought-provoking cinema in the heart of Europe’s capital.

20th anniversary of Brussels Design Week takes place from 24 September to 4 October, with over 100 events and 300 designers across various Brussels neighborhoods.

For the beer aficionados: Wanderlust, Belgium’s largest craft beer festival organized by Brussels Beer Project, is back on 12 & 13 September at Place du Vismet (Marché aux poissons). The event celebrates craft breweries from all over Europe bringing no less than 13 craft breweries from 9 different countries.

From our website: September edition of Brussels Retail Edit explores the rise of food markets and the arrival of latest one, Ratz in Ixelles.

In our new Brussels music agenda, you can find concerts, festivals and open-air parties throughout September.

Finally, something from the archives for all Brussels newcomers: Lessons from living and working in the heart of Europe – the good, the tricky, and the unexpected.

More September tips:

Have you already visited a listed Art Deco park – the beautiful Square Armand Steurs in Saint Josse? Designed by architect Eugène Dhuicque during the interwar period, its historic landscape has become an open-air gallery for monumental sculpture since 1993 – a little corner of Brussels where art is displayed in the open air.

The 34th edition brings together around thirty Belgian and international artists who have taken over this hidden garden, placing their works in dialogue with the architecture, perspectives and vegetation of the site. Until 29 September, every day from 10:00 to 18:00. Free access.

RendezVous – Brussels Art Week is an annual celebration of city’s vibrant art scene. From 10 to 13 September, the event will host artist talks, performances, guided tours, screenings and special gatherings.

Expo Lost and Found – Japanese Photography. From 3 September until 20 December, the exhibition Lost and Found explores the themes of memory, catastrophe, disappearance, and renewal in Japanese photography through a selection of works from the collections of the Fondation A.

Last days to catch Icons of the 90’s, a major automotive exhibition at Autoworld museum, taking visitors back to one of the most iconic and influential decades in recent history. Until 6 September.

Marking their 25th anniversary, The Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra takes audiences on a musical journey spanning the Norwegian fjords, the landscapes of the Middle East and the vast plains of China. Edvard Grieg’s celebrated Peer Gynt Suites will be performed alongside works by three contemporary composers: Claude Ledoux (Belgium), Qoutayba Neaimi (Belgium / Iraq), and Nasser Sahim Al-Jassim (Qatar). On 25 September at Théâtre NOVUM in Etterbeek.

From 30 September to 4 October, Les Lundis d’Hortense celebrate 50 years of Belgian Jazz.

EU Quarter tips:

 The new season of film screenings has started at Info Hub of the European Parliament! Different movies will be shown from September until the end of the year. Full agenda here.  Free entrance. No reservation required. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Temporary expo: Postcolonial? at House of European History features unique artworks, historical objects and personal stories, leading the visitors throughout the much-needed European reckoning with colonialism. Entrance is free.

☕️ If you are often in the neighborhood, you know this already: Greek coffee shops took over all corners of the EU quarter and they are packed with coffee aficionados from all backgrounds. Read more in Politico’s story How Greeks conquered the Brussels coffee bubble.

Getting ready for October

Iconic Cirque du Soleil’s OVO is coming to Brussels with a completely reinvented show from 30 September to 4 October at ING Arena. A reimagined set design, new acrobatic acts, original characters, reimagined costumes, and reinvented music.

The performance dazzles with its fascinating insect colony, bringing together 53 acrobats and musicians in a show that delights both adults and children.

The legendary New York modern dance company finally returns to the capital this October. Blending heritage and creation, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s comeback to Belgium stands as one of the major choreographic events of the 2026 fall season. The prestigious dance company will perform on the stage of Forest National from 1 to 4 October.

Around Belgium: Stories you might have missed

• Iconic Brussels Palais de Justice façade unveiled after more than 40 years
• British bookseller Waterstones will open a second shop in Brussels in October. The two-floor bookstore will be located on Avenue Louise. Earlier this year, Passa Porta also opened a second branch specialising in English-language books on Rue Dansaert.
• Brussels Airlines is expanding its winter leisure network with three new scheduled routes to the Nordic region
• Brussels Tram Experience returns with Michelin-starred chefs and new lunch menu
• JAM Sonor, a new music hub with concert rooms opens in Brussels at the former MIMA
• Hageland celebrates Belgian wine with four weekends of tastings and vineyard tours
• The Belgian town where water became a way of life
• How Tervoerke is putting Tervuren on Belgium’s beer map

Three ideas for team-building & fun group activities in Brussels:

• Authentic walk & crossbow shooting in the old royal guild
• Guided Tour with a Taste of Belgian Chocolate
• Guided Walk with a Belgian Beer Finale

Also happening:

• Belgian Beer Weekend celebrates 10 years of UNESCO recognition with 10-day event. 4 – 13 September
• Fête de la BD – Comic Strip Festival will be held in the Bourse building on 19 & 20 September.
• Bruxellons! Until 20 September at Château du Karreveld, Molenbeek. Open-air summer theatre under the stars in a castle courtyard: Kinky Boots (the flagship musical, flamboyant and human), John & Jen (intimate musical storytelling), and Jack Cooper’s mentalism show Tout est écrit.
• Tutankhamun – The Immersive Exhibition at Brussels Expo. The award-winning, globe-trotting spectacle that has drawn over 2.5 million visitors worldwide, invites you to step inside the world of ancient Egypt and its mythical pharaoh.
• The Boghossian Foundation presents Diary of Happiness, Jean-Michel Othoniel’s first major exhibition in Brussels, bringing together more than one hundred works inspired by thirty years of travel across the world. Until 4 October.
• Horta Museum presents the exhibition Art Nouveau versus Art Deco? 1850–1950: A Century in 31 Seats. Featuring thirty chairs by leading designers, from Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde to Le Corbusier and Marcel Breuer, the expo offers insight into a century of transformation in design and architecture in the Western world. Until 2027
• Jeppe Hein: Reflections on Breathing at Vanhaerents Art Collection. The Danish artist’s first major Brussels exhibition brings together three iconic works: Breathe With Me, Modified Social Benches and Rotating Mirrors – an immersive encounter with mindfulness, connection and collective presence. The Vanhaerents warehouse in the city centre is one of Brussels’ finest private collection spaces. Until 31 Dec.
• The Fashion and Lace Museum brings Simplicities, a fascinating exhibition that explores how fashion, long before contemporary minimalism, already sought purity of lines, freedom of the body and a certain idea of ​​simplicity.
• Territoires intérieurs at Musée & Jardins van Buuren, until 27 September. A poetic dialogue between two major figures of 20th-century Belgian art, Gustave van de Woestyne and Anto Carte – both sharing a deeply interiorised vision of the human condition, spirituality and the rural world.
• Expo: Designing Childhood – a history of design for children, at the Design Museum Brussels until 20 September.
• Val Saint-Lambert & Design at Design Museum Brussels. The rich creative history of Belgium’s legendary crystal glassworks, with particular focus on the dialogue between craft and design from Expo 58 through the early 2000s.