Zinneke, the Charter

1. The Zinneke Parade, Z-day, is Brussels' festival
Moreover, it's the festival of all of Brussels, Brussels, capital of Europe,
Brussel, the Flemish capital, Bruxelles, the capital of the French Community
and Brüssel, capital of comic strips. Together they make one big Bruzzle,
where Brucargo-on-Zaventem and Brussels-South-on-Gosselies play leapfrog
with Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde and the nineteen municipalities.

2. The Zinneke Parade, festival of the neighbourhoods
The Zinneke Parade was born in Brussels' neighbourhoods, breeding grounds
« par excellence » of all local initiatives and of a quiet and often ignored
liveliness that constitutes the magnificence of such a city. The Parade is
their day off, their meeting with the millions, the day they gain the
recognition they deserve.

3. The Zinneke Parade, a freedom festival
When Z-day arrives, the Zinnekes leave their neighbourhoods. Today they
formally take possession of the heart of the city. By this act of popular
sovereignty, the inhabitants retake their city. The neighbourhoods and the
different communities in Brussels discover each other in a ritual
confirmation of what constitutes the origin of every town and city : rights
and liberty.

4. The Zinneke Parade, an artistic creation
In order to express themselves, the Zinnekes use music, dance costumes,
floats and all other forms of artistic creation they can lay their hands on;
so as to make their Parade into a moment of intense beauty in the heart of
the city. The Zinneke Parade sings out in joy : « la ville est belle » !

5. The Zinneke Parade, a contemporary creation
The artistic choices the Zinneke Parade made are thoroughly contemporary,
although the Zinnekes do not at all deny the past, its traditions and
folklore. On the contrary, they adopt them and integrate them to make their
creation an expression of our time and their vision of the future.

6. The Zinneke Parade, a transcultural creation
The Zinneke Parade doesn't consider Brussels' variety of communities as
living apart together but as a real melting pot, a colourful jumble of
interactions in all directions which gives rise to a fireworks of art
products. Furthermore, the Zinnekes sing the praises of bilingualism :
Turco-German, Anglo-Spanish, Arabo-Japanese, Franco-Albanian, Italo-Swahili
and pure « Brusseleir ».

7. The Zinneke Parade, a creation in concert
The Zinneke Parade is based on collaboration between experienced artists and
absolute beginners, between professionals and perfect amateurs. The Zinnekes
learn to listen at the University of Life and work on a completely new way
of practising art in the city, together with the inhabitants and addressed
to them.

8. The Zinneke Parade, a multicoloured creation
The Zinneke Parade is the festival of all the schools, the workshops, the
youth clubs, the cultural centres, the « centres d'expression et de
créativité », the associations, the folkloric ensembles and the hundreds of
groups and gangs in which the inhabitants have been completely caught up in
the most diverse forms of artistic creation, looking for some common
expression of their living and life together.

9. The Zinneke Parade, a festival for the future
The Zinneke Parade chooses as its theme a hot item of today's life, which
the artists and inhabitants explore, developing their various dreams and
individual utopias and visions of the future.

10. The Zinneke Parade, a popular festival
The Parade is the ultimate Spring Festival, the celebration of a
renaissance, the awakening in a new dream, an explosion of fantasy. It's the
festival of all the people from Brussels and all those who love our capital.