Day: August 11, 2025

Ostend – The Theater Aan Zee (TAZ) festival 2025 in Ostend attracted 100,000 visitors over its ten-day run, showcasing 600 performances across 50 venues. This year’s theme focused on the concept of time. Martha Balthazar and Leon Adriaensen received the Caroline Pauwels Grant for their project “Aha,” which awarded them €12,500 in support, reports 24brussels.

As VRT News reported, this 28th edition of the TAZ festival maintained visitor numbers consistent with previous years, emphasizing Ostend’s role as a vibrant cultural hub. Approximately 50,000 theater tickets were sold, featuring a mix of established artists and emerging talent who performed throughout the city, transforming it into an expansive stage.

How did TAZ 2025 in Ostend celebrate time with 9 premieres?

The Caroline Pauwels Grant was awarded to Martha Balthazar and Leon Adriaensen for their project Aha (working title). Named after the late former rector of VUB, who curated TAZ in 2021, the award serves as recognition of innovative artistic contributions. The project explores the epiphany when ambiguity gives way to clarity, supported with €10,000 from deAuteurs and €2,500 from VUB, alongside additional backing from TAZ, KVS, and De Grote Post.

This year’s festival themed around time follows the previous year’s focus on generations. The motto, “Le Temps d’une chanson,” inspired by Serge Gainsbourg’s song La Javanaise, encapsulates fleeting moments of love and connection. Artistic director Cindy Godefroi intricately integrated this theme into various performances, culminating in an emotional evening featuring 101-year-old Alice Toen singing “De Tijd van Toen” (The Time of Then).

TAZ premiered nine new productions, all reflecting the festival’s temporal theme. Noteworthy was “Queen of the Flies”, a creative blend of drama and comedy involving seven drag queens, a ship captain, and a writer stranded on an island. In Macc(h)abees, Sophie Warant presented a gripping physical performance derived from seven years of research on mortality. The festival also featured local debuts of “There is no rhythm, there is no rain”, “Bulk”, “DEEPER”, and “A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here”.

What makes Theater Aan Zee a major summer arts festival?

Established in 1997, the Theater Aan Zee festival has become a prominent summer arts event in Belgium, held annually in Ostend. The festival not only spotlights theatre but also encompasses music, literature, and visual arts, revolving around a central theme that accommodates both celebrated artists and fresh talent.

Many productions debut at TAZ before embarking on national and international tours. Officials noted that the festival is recognized for its bold artistic expressions and for providing audiences an opportunity to witness innovative and original performances.

• US consumers are facing rising costs due to new import tariffs.
• Importers and foreign exporters have absorbed most costs so far, with American firms bearing the brunt.
• But consumers may absorb 67% of tariff costs by October, according to Goldman Sachs.

American consumers are beginning to feel the pinch from the US’s latest wave of import tariffs, and the pain is expected to get worse.

Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has imposed a blanket 10% baseline tariff on all foreign imports, additional varying rates on specific countries, and a series of product-specific duties, including on automobiles.

So far, consumers have absorbed just 22% of the tariff costs associated with this year’s increases, according to a new Goldman Sachs report published Sunday. But by October, that share could rise to 67%, if pricing patterns continue to follow those observed earlier in the year.

Goldman reached that conclusion by analyzing import and consumer price data through June.

“Descriptive evidence shows that goods categories heavily exposed to imports have indeed experienced sizable price increases since the beginning of this year, relative to their prior trends,” they wrote.

Specifically, prices of household appliances and information processing equipment — such as computers and electronics — have increased by 7.5 percentage points more than what they would’ve cost without the tariffs, they wrote.

What’s especially striking is who’s been absorbing tariff costs so far. US businesses have born the brunt, covering about 64% of costs through midyear, Goldman found.

Meanwhile, foreign exporters have cut prices to stay competitive, absorbing around 14%.

But that’s expected to change.

According to Goldman, tariffs have already contributed about 0.20 percentage points to core Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation — the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure. They expect an additional 0.16% increase in July, and another 0.5% from August through December.

Some major companies, including Adidas and Walmart, have said that they will be hiking prices in the US.

That means consumers may face higher prices on everything from electronics to cars heading into the holiday shopping season.

Goldman expects core PCE inflation at 3.2% year over year by December — well above the Fed’s 2% target. Without tariffs, Goldman says, the underlying inflation trend would be closer to 2.4%.

Treasury data shows that the federal government has collected over $100 billion from customs duties so far this year — a sign that “someone is paying” for the tariffs, wrote Deutsche Bank last month.