What's on this week: 24-30 November

Friday is the opening of Winter Wonders 2017. It all starts at the Grand-Place with the parade, which this year is called The Love Parade and features the mesmerising, magical giant-lighted puppets of Companie Remue Ménage. Last year they brought us dancing polar bears, this year it’s lovesick stags and does. All the old favorites are back: the Christmas market, the big wheel, the ice rink, the light show at the Grand-Place and more. New this year are interactive "Columns of Light" on the Place Sainte-Catherine that will mimic the auroras borealis; in the courtyard of City Hall a 23ft moon created from Nasa images, a fusion of lunar imagery, moonlight and original musical compositions; festive light parades through the city centre every Saturday at 18.00 and 22.00; Anoki’s Christmas, a spectacle of sound, light, dance and projections for the whole family; 100 streets in the city center illuminated, and a 100m² mazz with endless shapes and colours, multicoloured rays that will constantly be reflected and altered with no obvious pattern. Guided tours of Winter Wonders in English, Arabic, Turkish, Albanian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and French set off from the Bourse every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 16.00, priced €6. Email info@alterbrussels.org
24 November-31 December, but a number of the special attractions will continue until 7 January

Pompeii, the Immortal City is an exhibition in the Bourse that combines 3D recreations with more than 100 actual archeological finds to create a total immersive experience. The Museum of Europe has joined with the Museo Galileo Firenze and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli to bring us spectacular displays that recreate the destruction of the city and reveal the Romans’ understanding of nature and the scientific and technical knowhow at the time.

UK company Cie1927, which The Guardian calls "jaw-droppingly clever and gloriously subversive" will be appearing in Brussels with their latest production Golem, a magical mixture of theatre, cinema and animation for young and old (ages 12 and up). Written and directed by Suzanne Andrade, the show is in English with French surtitles.
25 November-1 December, Théâtre National

The Honda Competition for Classical Music is open to graduating students in all eight Belgian music academies with the three winners sharing €16,000 in awards. This is an interdiscipline competition and the semi-final is this Friday at the Brussels Royal Conservatory.

It’s the second weekend of Modern Sound Korea, the Korean music festival in Brussels. On Friday they will be taking over the Halles Saint-Géry to bring us Bul-Geum which is a Seoul concept that translates literally as Burning Friday Night, a time to get wild, a frenetic Friday Night Fever. Performing will be group Ssing Ssing who combine an extravagant visual style and stage manners with rock band music coupled with traditional Korean folk vocals as well as elements of pop music, ballads and shamanistic rituals. Also performing will be KSW X KHW, a duo on the edge of misanthropy and melancholy. And rounding out the evening will be DJ Soulscape. Plus Korean food and drinks.

The fourth edition of Vini Birre Ribelli - Wine, Beer, Rebels - is this weekend in Sheds 4 and 4bis at Tour & Taxis. The exhibition is fully devoted to craft and traditional products, organic and sustainable and mostly natural, uniting the worlds of beer, wine and food with more than 170 exhibitors from wineries, breweries, slow food trucks and other stands.

After a decade in Brussels, the release of six albums and performances across four continents, American singer Georgio "the Dove" Valentino is drawing the line with the release of a final, semi-autobiographical 17" vinyl box and one last trans-Atlantic tour, The Future Lasts a Long Time. Final dates in Belgium are Sunday 26 November at De Audio Plant in Antwerp and Thursday 30 November at Kinky Star in Ghent.

They promise us that the champagne will flow during the four days of the Sablon Nocturnes. A mix of gastronomy and music, the event from Thursday until Sunday promises lovely night-time strolls with delicate lighting, the aforementioned bubbly, red carpets galore and street activities. The local businesses will stay open until 23.00 for all your gift shopping.

On Wednesday at the Central(e) for Contemporary Art there will be a screening of Bill Viola: Experiencing the Infinite. This is a documentary film by Jean-Paul Fargier (2013) on the art of Bill Viola, the pre-eminent pioneer of video art. Viola was making art on video tape practically as soon as video tape was available.
29 November 12.30 (bringing your lunch is encouraged)