Since January 2020, you have to pay five euros an hour to park your car near Forest National on concert evenings, a price considered excessive by some spectators. The Brussels municipality of Forest justifies this increase by a desire to facilitate parking for Forestois and Forestoises.
Coming to Brussels to attend a concert at Forest National, Anthony has a bitter taste from this evening of April 26th. Reason for his dissatisfaction: the price of parking which he considers exorbitant. Via the orange button Alert us, the inhabitant of Liège shares how bad he was “impatient and excited” to participate in the show of the French artist Eddy de Pretto. Especially since the event was “repeatedly postponed” due to the covid pandemic.
According to Anthony, “the biggest surprise of the day was not the gift offered by my companion, but indeed the price of parking meters around the concert hall”. “The price goes from 1 euro to 5 euros per hour, when there is an event, it is quintupled”he regrets.
Indeed, the area surrounding Forest National is an event area. Clearly, a special parking rate of 5 euros per hour applies on concert evenings from 7:30 p.m. to midnight. There is an exemption for holders of a derogation card valid in Forest: local residents, “sports”, professionals or schools and nurseries, and guests of residents of the event area, if their host has used a local resident card. temporary-visitor.
We are asked to bring culture to life, but the population’s wallet must drink
Anthony counts: “We already pay around 40 euros for a concert ticket, to this is added the travel costs and finally, you almost have to pay for an additional place to be able to park your car. At 30 euros the evening of parking, we wait at the less a minimum of surveillance and still limit that we park our car”.
To pay the more advantageous rate of one euro per hour (free from 6 p.m.), the Liégeois finally parked two km from the concert hall. His misunderstanding remains: “We are asked to bring culture to life, to participate in events… but once once more, the population’s wallet has to toast. Going from one to two euros an hour is already one thing, but five euros, I think it’s just shameful”.
The event zone has been active since January 2020, but the special parking rate only applies during shows. The list of streets affected by this price increase can be consulted ici.
For years, residents had struggled to find parking spaces
In the past two years, there have been very few concerts organized due to the health crisis. The real recovery is only a few weeks old. The alderman of Mobility for Forest, Esmeralda Van den Bosch, assures that the authorities have no idea of the revenue that this measure will generate. She also says that she has not received any complaints from traders or local residents. However, two petitions were launched by citizens when the measure was launched.
Esmeralda Van den Bosch also indicates that this area was set up with the aim of satisfying local residents: “For years, residents had struggled to find parking spaces.” The Alderman adds that “Spectators prefer to park for free on the street rather than paying 5 to 10 euros in the car parks provided for this purpose, which are currently underused. With this measure, the municipality wants to encourage spectators to use the Stalle, Ceria car parks and Audi, so that the parking spaces in the neighborhood can be used once more by Forestois.es”.
Solutions for getting to Forest National
The Audi car park is located just under a km from the concert hall and the price for the evening is 10 euros, but it is not always available. The Stalle car park is two km from Forest National and is accessible free of charge. That of Ceria regarding five km.
Note that the concert entry ticket is associated with an Event Pass, a free return ticket to travel on the STIB network and go to Forest National by public transport (from your home or a car park). Two trams and four buses stop near the venue.