The Flower Carpet Returns to Brussels

The Brussels Flower Carpet has been running since 1971. It returns this summer from 13 to 16 August, and the 2026 edition has more to it than usual.

The Theme — Japan and La Grande Vague

This year’s edition celebrates 160 years of diplomatic relations between Belgium and Japan. The design chosen is one of the most recognisable images in the history of art: La Grande Vague de Kanagawa by Hokusai, the great wave, dark at its crest, with the snow-capped peak of Fuji in the background. Here it is reinterpreted across more than 500,000 dahlias by Japanese artist Hiro Sugiyama and his collective Enlightenment.

The result is a flower carpet that most people will recognise before they understand it. The image is so embedded in visual culture that seeing it rendered at scale, in flowers, on one of Europe’s most beautiful squares, is a genuinely strange and moving experience. It tends to stop people in their tracks.

What’s New in 2026 — A Second Carpet at the Bourse

For the first time in the event’s history, a second carpet will be installed beyond the Grand-Place. The Bourse de Bruxelles, a few minutes’ walk from the main square, will host its own floral installation, this one inspired by the hop plant and Belgian brewing heritage.

It is a meaningful addition. The two sites create a proper itinerary through the city centre rather than a single destination. The walk between them passes through streets that are worth taking slowly in August, when the city has a particular quality of light in the early evening and the terraces are at their best.

Come in the Evening

The Flower Carpet is worth seeing twice: once in daylight, when the colours and the scale register clearly, and once after dark. Each evening of the event, from 21h to 23h, the Grand-Place hosts a sound and light show every thirty minutes. The architecture around the square, guild halls and Gothic towers, each one lit differently, becomes part of the composition. The carpet takes on another character entirely.

If you can only come once, come in the evening. The crowds are lighter after nine, the air is cooler, and the experience is quieter without being less impressive.

For the view from above, the Town Hall balcony offers access to the full design from a height, the patterns and proportions that are difficult to read from street level become legible all at once. It requires a ticket and advance booking, which tends to sell out in the weeks before the event.

Getting There — and Where to Stay

The Grand-Place is free to access throughout the event. The Bourse is a short walk from the main square, and both are in the centre of the city, easily reached on foot from any of the central neighbourhoods.

From Sainte-Catherine, the walk to the Grand-Place takes around five minutes through the pedestrian streets of the old town. It is the kind of distance that makes the neighbourhood a practical base for the event, close enough to come and go, far enough to step outside the crowds when the main square fills up.

Dates: 13–16 August 2026
Grand-Place access: Free
Sound and light show: Every evening, 21h–23h, every 30 minutes
Town Hall balcony: Advance booking recommended
Second carpet: Bourse de Bruxelles, hop and brewing heritage theme

August in Brussels fills up quickly. If you are planning a stay around the Flower Carpet, check availability at Made in Catherine — the hotel is in the Sainte-Catherine quarter, five minutes from the Grand-Place on foot.

For everything else happening in Brussels this summer, the July events guide is here.