Every year we try to turn Couleur Café into one great party: an event where everyone is welcome, where every origin, background and identity comes together to create a bubble away from everyday life - a space for freedom, discovery and celebration.

This year again, we managed to keep that spirit alive throughout the festival. Unfortunately, the violent storm that hit Osseghem Park on Saturday cut the celebration short and deeply affected our visitors, our teams, our partners and our volunteers.

Looking back, evacuation was the only responsible call. It may have felt premature to some, but every minute mattered. We needed to get everyone off the site calmly and safely, move more than 5000 campers to shelter under the best possible conditions, and prepare the festival site to withstand the storm.

So far, the number of compensation or refund requests has remained reasonable, and we're grateful for the trust you've shown us during this time. Nothing would make us happier than being able to respond quickly and properly. But Couleur Café is run by a non-profit with a small, dedicated team that works all year to keep the festival as accessible and affordable as possible. As a small non-profit, we simply don't have the financial reserves to step in with immediate compensation. We depend entirely on our insurers, and that process can take time: weeks, sometimes months.

The evacuation has also hit the festival hard financially. Beyond cutting the evening short, we're facing significant lost revenue, particularly from the bars, along with extra costs for staffing, urgent repairs, site cleanup and camper accommodation.

Despite this difficult situation, we're doing everything we can to find a solution that's as fair as possible. We're exploring every option, but we can't commit to anything until our talks with the insurers are far enough along. Our priority is a fair outcome, one that doesn't put the festival's future at risk.

Finally, we want to thank, once again, all the festival-goers for their calm and cooperation during the evacuation, all the emergency crews for their tireless work and long hours, and everyone showing us patience and understanding right now.

We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more, through all our usual channels. Thanks for understanding the lack of, or delay on individual replies while we work through this - that's so we can come back to you with real answers, as fast as possible. Thanks again for your patience and your trust,

The Couleur Café team