Interkultur, the rightsholder and organiser of the World Choir Games has announced that the Flanders cities of Antwerp and Ghent will jointly host the world’s largest choir competition in 2020. Following a comprehensive bid process, the Flanders bid, led by EventFlanders on behalf of the Flanders Government, fought off competition from South Korea to be named the host of the event that will see over 500 choirs from 80 nations and 30,000 singers descend on Antwerp and Ghent in a celebration of choral music from all genres. Between 5th and 15th July 2020, the best professional and amateur choirs in the world will compete against each other in an 11-day festival.
Speaking about the award, Flemish Minister of Tourism Ben Weyts said: “We want to bring even more international top events to Flanders in the near future. Events such as the World Choir Games are very interesting because of the international image and the revenues for our economy, which are conservatively estimated at 21 million euros”.
EventFlanders was established in 2016 as a specialist entity tasked with promoting existing Flemish events and attracting new major events to the territory. The Sports Consultancy has partnered with EventFlanders since its inception to develop the agency’s operating model, identify strategically aligned events, develop an major events calendar and proactively bid to bring new events to Flanders. The Sports Consultancy led a multi-stakeholder bid team to conduct the feasibility assessment and, subsequently, to bid for and secure the World Choir Games for the Flemish territory – bringing together The Sports Consultancy’s Consulting, Major Events and Legal capabilities.
