Jan Briers

Jan Briers is President of the European Festivals Association, the Federation of Music Festivals in Flanders and of Ghent Festival. He was Member of the Belgian Federal Parliament from 2019 to 2024. From 2013 to 2018 he was Governor of the province of East Flanders. Until 2013 he assumed responsibility for 350 events in about thirty cities and municipalities as Managing Director of the Flanders Festival Brussels-Ghent. In 2000 he steered the organization of the Concertgebouw, the new concert hall in Bruges. In 2002 he created the KlaraFestival in Brussels, Antwerp, and Bruges. In 2003 he became also Managing Director of the OdeGand city festival. In 2008 he was the cofounder of the AAPAF (Asian Association of Performing Arts Festivals). 

In 2010 he founded the international broadcasting festival MusMA (Music Masters on Air), a partnership of festivals and TV and radio channels in several European countries. In 2010 he set up the Informal Summit Ghent, a yearly international conference of leaders in the cultural, economic, academic, social and political world. In 2014, his dream Project 1000 Voices For Peace was realised by the Festival of Flanders. In 2015, he became Ambassador of the Festival of East Flanders, a feast that brings young classical musicians to nearly 30 municipalities in the province. In 2021, he created the  Festival STROOM, on the borders of the river Scheldt, together with 24 local authorities and with only one theme: sustainability.