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Ghent · Venue

Charlatan

A 200-capacity Vlasmarkt music café where gigs, DJs, comedy and late-night crowds share three rooms.

Upcoming shows
17
Capacity
200
Address
6 Vlasmarkt, 9000 Gent
Phone
09 224 24 57
Next show
Thu, 8 Oct 2026
Official siteDirections
Charlatan in Ghent

About Charlatan

Charlatan is a 200-capacity music café and late-night club on Ghent’s Vlasmarkt. Its concert room provides a close-range setting for new bands, while the wider venue stretches across a café, a concert-and-dance room and Belgica. Graffiti covers much of the interior, giving shows a visibly lived-in backdrop; the connection to Felix van Groeningen’s film Belgica supplies the venue’s clearest cultural calling card.

A pub, expanded into a club

The story starts in 1988, when Jo Van Groeningen took over Café Tramway, a popular pub and Racing Ghent supporters’ base, and called the new operation Ekkentu 2. A year later it became Charlatan, with Jan Carpentier joining the business. The owners rebuilt the café and, across three years, added major extensions, enclosed the courtyard toilets and opened a large room at the rear. Those changes made space for the mix of bar life, live music and dancing that defines the place.

Charlatan later furnished the real-world basis for Felix van Groeningen’s Belgica, filmed largely inside the venue. For the film’s Belgian premiere, its Barbaar room was rechristened Belgica and dressed with a Bacchus mural; Belgica remains part of the building’s current three-room layout.

Three rooms, shifting gears

Charlatan programmes comedy on Tuesdays, concerts on Wednesdays and Thursdays, then parties from Wednesday through Saturday and before public holidays. That schedule suits listeners seeking indie, rock, punk, metal or pop bills alongside electronic, hip-hop and all-round DJ nights. The 200-person hall is the key live room, with the café and Belgica offering spillover space; a summer terrace provides a breather between sets. The venue also states full wheelchair accessibility and a zero-tolerance policy covering harassment and discriminatory conduct.

Sources

  1. Charlatan — Democrazy
  2. Belgica press dossier — Kinepolis Film Distribution
  3. Cinéma. “Belgica”, une plongée dans les nuits gantoises — Courrier international
  4. Charlatan — Visit Gent
  5. Praktisch — Charlatan
  6. 'Belgica' komt tot leven in Charlatan en vice versa — HLN

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