Passa Porta Festival 2025: the first names for the tenth anniversary edition
From 28 to 30 March, over a hundred of authors and artists will gather for the tenth edition of the Passa Porta Festival, the rendezvous for literature in Brussels, which has been among the biggest festivals in Europe these past twenty years.
On Friday 28 March, the Festival will open at La Monnaie with Ghost Stories. At the request of Passa Porta, five authors have written a new text on the theme of the Festival, ‘Ghosts’. Eduardo Halfon, the Guatemalan winner of the Prix Médicis étranger 2024, Dutch-born and Brussels-based Bregje Hofstede, Merethe Lindstrøm from Norway, and Icelandic writer Jón Kalman Stefánsson will all read their stories in a unique setting and in their mother tongue (with simultaneous translation into Dutch and French). The authors will also appear at other venues over the course of the weekend, in meetings with other writers.
On Saturday, the programme will feature influential British author Jeanette Winterson, whose latest book, Night Side of the River, is a delightful collection of modern ghost stories. Erri De Luca, a major name in Italian literature, will also be present on Saturday.
On Sunday, we will welcome, among others, Congolese writer In Koli Jean Bofane and Moroccan writer and film-maker Abdellah Taïa.
Danish author Solvej Balle will be writer in residence at Passa Porta in March. She will be working on her fascinating cycle of novels On the Calculation of Volume in the residence flat on Dansaertstraat. She will of course also be present at the Festival.
This is just the beginning, the rest of the programme will be announced on 24 February. In total, more than 100 authors and artists will gather for a three-day programme of readings, interviews, workshops, meetings, reading clubs and panel discussions, during this anniversary edition of the Passa Porta Festival 2025. From 28 to 30 March, Brussels will be, for the 10th time, the literary capital of Europe.
practical information
Starting February 3, our regular tickets will be available for purchase, with the following pricing:
- Pass for the opening night Ghost Stories: €14- Weekend Pass: €39
- Day Pass (Saturday* or Sunday): €24
*Both the Saturday Day Pass and the Weekend Pass include access to the Saturday evening programmes. However, a reservation is required. Reservations open on February 24, when the full programme is announced.