Every year, Belgium Booms and JazzLab team up with a leading jazz event to host an international visitors’ programme, shining a spotlight on the best of Belgian jazz. After successful editions at Jazz Brugge (2023), the European Jazz Conference in Ghent (2024), and BRAND! festival in Mechelen (2025), we're heading to Tongeren for Motives Festival 2026.

Motives Festival?

Motives Festival is the brainchild of JazzLab and Motives For Jazz, an organization that has been organizing a diverse jazz scene in Limburg since 1997. Motives for Jazz presents a balanced mix of jazz, adventurous avant-garde, and crossovers, featuring both young talent and established artists. The Motives Festival is the annual culmination of this initiative, which visits a different captivating location in the province each year.

The third edition of the nomadic Motives Festival will be an XL version and will take place at De Velinx in Tongeren. No fewer than ten Belgian bands, as well as the children’s show BRIES, will be featured at the festival. Curious about the full programme or want to plan your visit? Click here for all the info.

Belgium Booms x JazzLab @ Motives Festival 2026

As a bonus, Motives Festival will also host four bands selected for the Belgium Booms x JazzLab programme, chosen by an international jury.

Discover the Belgium Booms x JazzLab acts below:

Belgium Booms is a collaboration between VI.BE (Flanders) and Wallonie-Bruxelles Musiques (Wallonia), with the support of Sabam and PlayRight, powered by Lotto.