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Recordist's notes
(en) Each year in Louvain-La-Neuve city happens a festival called the 24-hours-bikes. It’s a cycling race and a parade of folk floats. But above all, this is what is called in Belgian patois a “guindaille”. Quite simply, it's a student’s celebration and really, it’s a gigantic feast. In fact, it’s the biggest drinking establishment after the beer feast in Munich. Forty thousand students meet in aim to feast on the streets of this pedestrian city. It's a gigantic orgy encompassing drunkenness, lust and debauchery. People are pissing from the balconies and at every street corner. There’s abundance of excess. During a walk in these streets gone crazy, this is the sound of the event. It’s more or less an abnormal soundscape. - (fr) Chaque année a lieu à Louvain-La-Neuve une festivité nommée les 24 heures vélo. Il s’agit d’une course cycliste et un défilé de chars folkloriques. Mais surtout, c’est ce qu’on appelle en patois belge une guindaille. Tout simplement, c’est une festivité étudiante. Reste que, les 24 heures, c’est une gigantesque guindaille. Quarante mille étudiants se retrouvent afin de festoyer dans les rues de la ville piétonne. C’est une gigantesque orgie, remplie d’ivresse, de luxure et de débauche. L’excès se retrouve à profusion. Au fil d’une promenade dans les rues devenues folles, voici la sonorité de l’évènement. C’est un paysage sonore pour le moins anormal !
About the place
Louvain-la-Neuve is a town of about 29,521 people in Wallonia, Belgium. OttoAnna lists 351 field recordings from here.
Recorded nearby
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Sources & credits
- “1348 Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique - 24 Hours bikes feast” by Vincent Duseigne – CC BY 3.0 · radio aporee ::: maps via Internet Archive
- Reverse geocoding: GeoNames – CC BY 4.0