Firestarter

With Firestarter, Barbara Raes, artistic director at NTGent, and Dutch theatre maker Alexandra Broeder created a brand-new ritual for young people on the cusp of adolescence, for the city and for society.

Firestarter, inspired by the forgotten power of fire, is a project at the intersection of art and care. It opened the new season of the NTGent city theatre at the end of 2025. More than a thousand people gathered around a huge fire in the centre of the city. They were all asked the same question: What burns within you?

The evening in Ghent’s Coyendanspark perfectly illustrated the intention of Firestarter. Centrally positioned around the fire was a group of children on the cusp of puberty. In the months leading up to the unique moment, they had undergone a lengthy (and largely hidden) process together with artists. The ritual helped them to complete the important transition from childhood to (young) adulthood through connecting with themselves, with one another, and with art and spirituality – giving them self-confidence and a way to develop other welcome qualities.

Children around the age of eleven are part of Generation Alpha, a generation that has never known a time before new technologies. “I am convinced that it is particularly important for them to be able to make real, live connections, to feel that they are part of a community, away from all digital devices,” says Barbara Raes.

Gathered around the fire were also dozens of participants in programmes running throughout the city, in parallel with the trajectory of the young people. With the help of NTGent, social arts organisations  – as well as organisations from the welfare sector, youth support and community work  – engaged these participants in workshops centered around the theme of a new beginning in the weeks before the fire ritual. Guided by the live music of well-known Flemish singer An Pierlé and the BOX-orchestra, the participants joined the bon fire to support the children and mark their own new beginning.

Firestarter fits within the artistic practice of Barbara Raes, who, prior to her appointment at NTGent, had already explored how art, rituals and care can reinforce one another in her private workplace Beyond the Spoken. Raes is convinced that in our modern, often fragmented society, we have a great need for meaningful rituals that offer purpose and comfort. What used to be collectively processed must now increasingly be dealt with individually. The result is a void in which turning points in our lives are felt intensely, but are rarely borne together.

Read the interview here with creators Barbara Raes and Alexandra Broeder, in which they explore in greater depth:

🔥The connecting, ecological and spiritual power of fire.

🔥The dramaturgy of the fire ritual.

🔥The three phases of every ritual: separation, transformation and reintegration.

🔥... and much more