A brief history
The Concertzaal, a forgotten treasure beneath the Theatre. The hall started out as a cinema, but was used for various purposes from the beginning. It was here that dozens of children, who had fled from the Spanish Civil War at the end of the 1930’s, were picked up by their adoptive parents in Ghent. The German occupiers in the Second World War could think of no better use for the Concertzaal than as a stable for pigs and horses. Now, with all the student parties being organized here, history seems to be repeating itself.
After the war the hall was forgotten, used only to store all kinds of junk, its floor ruled by pigeons, fleas and rats.
After being thoroughly cleaned up, the Concertzaal flourished again from 1982 onward.
Here Sinéad O’Connor played her first concert on Belgian soil, the late, great Kurt Cobain fell out with Courtney Love backstage, and ‘le plus beau’ Arno, hero of an entire generation of Belgian rock lovers, always gives his all on this very stage. This is also the place where thousands of students found their first love, where the very first ‘I Love Techno’ was held and, where kids had loads of fun with slighly insane sound installations, where StuBru.Uit and Ten Days Off seriously raised the room temperature and Hollandia put on Woyczek on a catwalk-like stage.
Facts
The Concertzaam as we know it today, situated right underneath the Theatre, with its terrace overlooking the Muinkschelde, served as a cinema during the 1920’s and 1930’s. As the simple oak benches were easily removable, the room could also be used for other activities.
Originally, architect Ferdinand Dierkens had come up with a unique method of illumination. He allowed daylight to pass through the stained glass windows in the ceiling of the Theatre, and through the glass bricks of its orchestra pit, into the Concertzaal below, which also has a stained glass ceiling. However, due to renovations this method of illumination has become impossible.
Following the disastrous occupation by the Germans in the Second World War, the hall had to be closed down. It did not reopen until the end of 1982, when, at first, the new programme included theatre and dance. Yet over the years the hall has evolved into the place to be for anything to do with ‘youth culture’: rock concerts, DJ dance nights and student parties. 1999 saw the room temporarily closed for a final overhaul, but nowadays around 1,200 people can dance all night on the parquet floor, surrounded by murals and gold leaf. One thing, however, has not changed: because of the Concertzaal’s unusual position beneath the Theatre, it is impossible to use both halls at the same time.
