Culture beat: 22 May

Belgium is already celebrating its qualification for the final of Eurovision on Saturday evening. If you want to cheer on 19-year-old Loïc Nottet singing Rhythm Inside, join the DJ party at international arts festival Kunstenfestivaldesarts. At 18 Quai du Commerce from 21.00-3.00.

The big draw, or rather big sound this weekend is the 20th anniversary of the Brussels Jazz Marathon 2015. With 250 free concerts, indoor and out, it’s guaranteed to wake up the city. Open-air concerts fill the following squares: Grand Place, Sablon, Sainte-Catherine, Fernand Cocq and for the second year in a row, Luxembourg. In addition to jazz, the 700 performing artists will be blasting out blues, funk, swing, world... A mini marathon is designed to keep kids and families entertained, while shuttle buses link up the various venues and a brand new app is packed with festival information, including accommodation and transport.

Place Fernand Cocq in Ixelles is staging another festival on Sunday, the 11th edition of Solidar XL supporting Médecins dans frontières/Doctors without borders in its fight against the spread of Ebola. With concerts (Who’s the Man, Anwar, Selva, Khalifa, Cré Tonnerre), activities for all the family including a bouncy castle and face painting, stands and refreshments. From 13.00-22.00.

Bar du Matin in Forest is a live music hub. Every Saturday in May and June, Sun-Sets Aperitivo Caliente is a free event from 16.00 with DJ Croco spinning loungey summer grooves. There's a big sun-soaked terrace, health-conscious tapas and games for kids.

Sunday shopping is finally kicking off in Brussels and the first date has been chosen to coincide with the jazz marathon to ensure a lively start. I shop on Sundays on Sunday 24 May, sees small shops open across the Pentagon city centre area. They will open every Sunday, while Rue Neuve and the City 2 mall will only open on the first Sunday of the month. Areas open this Sunday include the Antoine Dansaert fashion and design quarter and the Sablon and Marolles.

Outside Brussels

The very first retrospective of renowned British designer Jasper Morrison is being hosted by Grand-Hornu’s Centre for Innovation and Design until 13 September. Now a temple to contemporary art and design, the neo-classic heritage site was once a pantheon to coal mining during the Industrial Revolution. Morrison, born in 1959 in London, boasts a 35-year career in which he has quietly created everyday objects, including furniture, kitchenware and electronics. Running offices in London, Paris and Tokyo, he believes that good design has less to do with making products noticeable than with making sure they are useful. He has worked with leading manufacturers in Europe, Japanese brands such as Muji and technology companies Samsung and Sony.
Part of Mons 2015.

The brand-new Centre Keramis de La Louvière has opened with a fitting tribute to the site’s original Royal Boch china factory. Centred on the element that gives birth to ceramics, pottery and china, the exhibition On Fire: Arts et symboles du feu includes a permanent installation by Tournai ceramist Emile Desmedt. A monumental work resembling a five-metre high spindle fixed into the earth, it is being created in-situ between May and September. As part of Mons 2015, the contemporary ceramics centre gains another permanent object devised by designer Alain Berteau in the centre’s workshops in collaboration with Luigi Restaino, Boch’s last surviving mould maker. The collector’s object are also on sale. Until 12 September.