LGH Helps Bring a City Festival’s Floating Stage Back to Life

In Ghent, Belgium, LGH helped bring back one of the city festival’s most iconic landmarks. The Ghent Festival (Gentse Feesten) is one of Europe’s largest city festivals: ten days of free music, theatre and street performance that take over the historic centre every July.

For 2026, after a nine-year absence, the festival’s floating stage returned to the city’s waterways. Last seen in 2017, it once again took centre stage between the historic Graslei and Korenlei quays, creating a spectacular setting that drew crowds from both banks of the River Leie.

Suspended across the water in the heart of the city, the stage transformed Ghent's famous quays into a shared open-air arena, giving thousands of visitors the perfect vantage point to enjoy live performances against the backdrop of the city's medieval skyline. The return of the floating stage quickly became one of the highlights of the festival, which welcomes up to 2 million visitors over ten days and is renowned for its lively mix of music, street entertainment, theatre, cultural events and late-night celebrations.

LGH Benelux supported the project by supplying certified lifting equipment, helping bring this much-loved festival feature back to life and ensuring it was ready to welcome thousands of visitors once again.

Challenge:

Installing a floating stage in the centre of Ghent’s medieval waterfront comes with tight working space, constant public footfall and strict safety requirements. The structure had to be positioned accurately across the water, secured against movement, and rigged in a way that allowed the contractor to work efficiently despite the confined environment. With limited access points and a complex load path, the team required equipment that was reliable, easy to handle and suited to lifting and securing large modular components.

Solution:

LGH supplied a range of certified lifting and rigging equipment to help the team safely position and secure the floating stage. The supplied items included:

• Manual Chain Hoists
• Green Pin Shackles – 8.5t
• Roundslings – 10t, 10m
• MULTI LUG WLL 15t – 6m
• Mod 250
• Drop Links
• Modular End Units

Outcome:

The floating stage was successfully installed across the Graslei and Korenlei ahead of the festival opening. The equipment supported a smooth workflow, helping the contractor position and secure the structure safely within the limited space available. With the stage back for the first time in nearly a decade, the installation contributed to a standout edition of the Ghent Festival, enabling thousands of visitors to enjoy identical views and sound from both sides of the water.