WHAT'S ON
Full List
WAF CAFF
Ideas I Tues 5th May I 12.15pm - 13.15pm **OPEN TO ALL**
We meet for one hour on the first Tuesday of every month at Rond-Point Schuman, outside the European Commission, to stand up for democracy.
Each gathering focuses on a different issue, highlighting where rights and freedoms are at risk.
This is about freedom and about us as engaged citizens. Coffee and conversation are part of the gathering.
Democracy & coffee ☕
Join us and exercise your democratic rights.
No need to book, just drop by.
16 years of Hungarian Resistance
Benedek Jávor + others Moderator: Flora Hevesi
Conversations / Tues 19th May / 7pm Doors open 6.30pm
Hungary is often called the laboratory of modern autocracy - but it has also become a laboratory for survival, innovation, and grit. Join us for a deep dive into what 16 years on the frontlines of illiberalism actually teaches you.
From the technicalities of crowdfunding under pressure and navigating legal warfare to the psychological toll of long-term opposition, our panel of Hungarian politicians, activists and journalists will share what worked, what failed, and what the rest of the world needs to know when the bad guys show up at their door.
Open to everyone | Booking required Bar open
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ADDITIONAL INFO
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Bar & snacks
Helen Of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman
Culture | Thurs 21st May | 7:00-8:30 pm
Monthly meet up to discuss a great read, along with drinks & good company.
*Doors open at 6.30pm. The book club begins at 7pm.
‘A furious energy runs through Helen of Nowhere, whose every sentence is a joy to read.' ― Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists
In the middle of the countryside, a realtor is showing a disgraced professor around an idyllic house. She speaks not only about the home's many wonderful qualities but about its previous owner, the mystifying Helen, whose presence still seems to suffuse every fixture. Through hearing stories of Helen's chosen way of living, the man begins to see that his story is not actually over – rather, he is being offered a chance to buy his way into the simple life, close to the land, that's always been out of reach to him. But as evening fades into black, he will learn that the asking price may be much higher, and stranger, than anticipated. Philosophically and formally adventurous, at once intimate and cosmic in scope, Helen of Nowhere asks: What must we give up in exchange for true happiness?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Makenna Goodman is an American editor and a writer. She is the author of two novels: Helen of Nowhere and The Shame and has written for international publications including the New York Review of Books, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Harvard Review, The White Review, BOMB, The Common, ASTRA Magazine and Mousse Magazine. She has worked in publishing for two decades as an editor with gardeners, horticulturalists, artists, farmers, essayists, cultural critics, designers, scientists, composters, seed savers, foragers, and fermenters, and books she has developed and edited have won awards including the James Beard Award, the American Horticultural Society Award, and the IACP award. She is currently executive editor at Timber Press.
Bar open with snacks
Essentials in the age of AI — A Deeper Dive: Social Architectures and Democratic Resilience Organised and led by: tech & democracy analyst Maria Koomenneuroscientists and policy analysts Nicoleta Prutean and Virginia Mahieu
Essentials in the age of AI — A Deeper Dive:
Social Architectures and Democratic Resilience
Organised and led by: tech & democracy analyst Maria Koomenneuroscientists and policy analysts Nicoleta Prutean and Virginia Mahieu
Ideas / Action | Sat 30th May | 2-4:30 pm
*Act On sessions offer quarterly action-oriented get-togethers on a specific issue, between experts and an audience willing to DO something about it.*
This workshop turns our attention to how algorithmic systems shape who we connect with, how we relate, and how we cope. Recommender systems and AI-mediated platforms promise connection while quietly replacing serendipity and solidarity with curated, frictionless matching. We explore what this means for our capacity to act collectively, tolerate uncertainty, and sustain the civic bonds democratic systems depend on, and what alternative social architectures, business models, and regulatory levers could strengthen them.
With this session we take a deeper dive into 'the essentials' - the five core human capacities underpinning our democracies (comprehend, connect, create, communicate, and cope) and explore how AI-driven technologies are reshaping each one. We thoughtfully examine the specific design features behind that reshaping, what they mean for our democratic citizenship, and how we might build something better. Join us.
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Maria Koomen is a Democracy, governance & tech analyst and advocacy specialist. She is the former governance director at the Centre for Future Generations, working on the challenges at the intersection of emerging technologies, democracy, and governance. Her work focused on ensuring that governance systems evolve to keep pace with technological and societal change. Maria led the Open Governance Network for Europe, a joint initiative of Open Government Partnership and Democratic Society to drive connection, dialogue, and learning around public participation, transparency, and accountability with an eye to improving democracy and governance in and across the European Union. Prior to that Maria was senior programme manager on the Democracy Conflict & Governance program at the Carnegie Europe.
Nicoleta Prutean is a neuroscientist and policy analyst, currently leading research on tech & the brain at the Centre for Future Generations. Drawing on her expertise in brain science, her mission is to ensure that evidence on how emerging technologies affect mental health translates into policies that both protect and empower future generations.
Virginia Mahieu is a neuroscientist and policy analyst, neurotechnology Director at the Centre for Future Generations. She explores how neurotechnologies impact society, combining neuroscience and foresight to ensure that governance frameworks are up to scratch so these emerging technologies contribute to a brain-healthy future. She previously worked at the Policy Foresight Unit and the Scientific Foresight Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service, where she specialised in futures literacy, behavioural insights, and scenario planning at the science-policy interface.
SINGLES APERO
Social | Sat 30th May | 7-9pm
The Singles Apero is our popular series of monthly encounters where you can meet other social singles in a safe space without matching pressure. Feel free to bring any single friends along or just come by yourself.
Open to all singles | Booking required
Bar open
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ROOTS
Big Band of Canarias
Music / Sun 31st May / 6pm
*Doors & bar open 5.00pm. Concert starts at 6 pm.
Experience the vibrant sounds of “Roots”, blending jazz, flamenco, folk, and world music by the Big Band of Canarias. Led by true virtuoso saxophonist & composer Kike Perdomo, this extraordinary ensemble brings the Canary Islands’ musical heritage to life with soaring solos, bold arrangements, and irresistible rhythms.
Featuring 17 top musicians and special guests Luís Morera, Luisa Machado, Chiqui Pérez, Kino Ait Idrissen, and Beselch Rodríguez, “Roots” delivers a concert full of energy, artistry, and unforgettable musical moments for every listener.
ABOUT BIG BAND OF CANARIAS
Founded in 2008, the Big Band of Canarias brings together leading jazz musicians from the different Canary Islands and connects artists across generations. Throughout its history it has collaborated with internationally recognized artists including Sole Giménez, Gerardo Núñez, Dorantes, Dick Oatts, Soren Moller, Tutu Puoane, Viktorija Pilatovic, Daymé Arocena, Sandra Carrasco, Olga Cerpa, José Manuel Ramos, Fabiola Socas and many others. The ensemble has performed in important venues and festivals including the Madrid International Jazz Festival, Costa Brava International Jazz Festival, Berlin Big Band Festival, Bonn Bundes Big Band Festival, Seville Flamenco Biennial, Tenerife Auditorium, Canarias Jazz & Más Festival, Fimucité Film Music Festival and numerous cultural events across Spain and Europe.
WHEELCHAIR
Bar & snacks & light food
How to breakup Microsoft?
Aline Blankertz & Brianna Rock
Doors open at 6.30pm. Speakers will start at 7pm.
Aline Blankertz and Brianna Rock, two researchers and antimonopoly advocates, travel from Berlin to Brussels to break the ice around Big Tech breakups. In the launch of the series “How to Break up…”, they will focus on Microsoft.
The US company has been systematically violating competition rules, which indicates its vast political and market power. Addressing principles such as digital sovereignty, the integrity of markets, and the preservation of democracy, Blankertz and Rock find that Microsoft is too big to regulate. They will explore how to break up Microsoft, and what a smaller Microsoft could look like.
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Aline Blankertz is an applied economist and works as Tech Economy Lead at Rebalance Now, a German anti-monopoly organisation. Her work is focused on competition policy and the digital economy, with extensive experience encompassing think tanks, academic research and implementation projects.
Brianna Rock is an independent researcher supporting the European antimonopoly movement through evidence based research.
Google's Hidden Empire by Aline Blankertz, Brianna Rock, Nicholas Shaxson
with Maria Koomen Ideas / Action | Sat 13th Jun | 2-4:30 pm
with Maria Koomen
Ideas / Action | Sat 13th Jun | 2-4:30 pm
Save the date to act on democracy. More info coming soon.
A news commentary with
James Kanter
Ideas / Conversations / Wed 24th Jun / 7-8.30 pm
Live & On the Record: A Podcast Launch with James Kanter
Join us for the live debut of This Week's News, bringing Europe's most consequential stories to life and hosted by veteran Brussels journalist James Kanter.
With a live audience, a rotating cast of sharp journalistic voices and analysis driven by what is defining the news cycle, This Week's News is built to move with the moment — and this first recording is where it all begins.
Every episode, James Kanter weaves together guests, stories and debate into one compelling conversation. For this one, he'll be joined by a panel of fellow journalists, each bringing their own perspective, skilled analysis and comment for much needed sense-making — the first of many line-ups that will shift and evolve as the news demands.
No fixed agenda or guests. Just the stories that matter right now, told by the people closest to them. From the corridors of EU power to the fault lines reshaping the continent, the panel will dig into the headlines, share the dispatches that didn't make the front page, and debate the forces defining our world — live, unscripted, in front of you.
Whether you're a policy wonk, a news junkie, or simply trying to make sense of it's happening around you and the wider world, this is your invitation to be part of something from day one.
Join us for the news. Stay for the conversation.
James Kanter is an American and British award-winning journalist and Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. Previously at Herald Tribune and The New York Times. He's co-founder and editor of the Podcast EU Scream.
All My Precious Madness by Mark Bowles
Culture | Thurs 25th Jun | 7:00-8:30 pm
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Great news! The author, Mark Bowles, joins us virtually to discuss his award-winning novel together.
This is the last book club before the summer break! Join us.
‘Unapologetically erudite and frequently brutal' - The Telegraph
Henry Nash has hauled his way from a working class childhood in Bradford, through an undergraduate degree at Oxford, and into adulthood and an academic elite. But still, he can’t escape his anger. As the world – and men in particular – continues to disappoint him, so does his rage grow in momentum until it becomes almost rapturous. And lethal. This is the story of a man at odds with the world. A man who wants to escape his violent past but instead – most emphatically – repeats it.
A savagely funny novel that disdains literary and moral conventions, All My Precious Madness is also a work of deep empathy – even when that also means understanding the darkest parts of humanity. One of the most electric debuts of the last decade.
Mark Bowles is a published author and a committed teacher. Born and raised in Bradford, he went on to study at Liverpool and Oxford Universities. His first novel, All My Precious Madness, was published by Galley Beggar in 2024, and has been nominated for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Authors’ Club First Novel Prize. His second novel, How Do People Stay the Same, will be out in Spring 2025.
Social | Sat 27th June | 7-9pm
This is our last get together before the summer break. Come join us or see you back in September!
We only have 120 tickets and we always sell out!!
It's time to dust off your dancing shoes and join a traditional Scottish ceilidh.
No previous experience or dancing skills required - the band will be calling out the steps as we go along. If you're a ceilidh regular then you know how much fun it is!
Bring your friends or come along but please, no spikey heels on our rather beautiful wooden floor.
* 7.30pm doors open - bar snacks available
* 8.00pm start dancing!
* 10.30pm Band finishes
*TICKET INCLUDES 1 DRINK (BEER, WINE OR SOFT)
BAR SNACKS AVAILABLE ALL EVENING
Bar & light food
The Hoggies are the original Brussels-based Scottish ceilidh band.
You already know us, you know what we do, and that by coming YOU make this a great event!
Get your EARLYBIRD pass for the entire weekend today!
FULL CIRCLE HOUSE
89 Ch. de Vleurgat, Brussels 1050, Belgium +32 (0)2 644 3777 I info [ AT ] fullcircle.eu
BOOK A VISIT
OPENING MON-WED & FRI 9AM-5.30PM THURS 9AM-9PMSAT 2PM-7PM (or 9PM) SUNDAY & PUBLIC HOLIDAYS - CLOSED
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