The yearly Hyacinth Festival in Belgium’s Hallerbos, a patch of ancient woods close to the city of Halle, about one hour from Brussels, is about to kick off, with early bloomers already spotted here and there.
The official season this year starts on 13 April, when the municipality of Halle starts the free shuttle service from the train station to Hallerbos, nicknamed the “Blue Forest” thanks to its famous hyacinths. The Hyacinth Festival draws in tens of thousands of visitors each year, with many people making the trip to Belgium specifically for this spring event.
The festival only lasts for a few weeks, with the last day being 1 May. The best period to visit however is about a week after the beech trees start growing their leaves. The purple blue of the hyacinths combined with the transparent bright green of the young beech leaves give a magical effect to the forest. Plenty of light still reaches the forest floor and the flowers thrive, before turning a greyer blue as the fully leafed trees darken the woods.
Although the bluebells steal the show, they the only spring flower to be found in these woods. Keen-eyed plant lovers will also notice bright white wood anemones, yellow star-shaped lesser celandine, wild daffodils, Solomon’s seal, yellow archangel and sweet-scented bedstraw.
As in previous years, free shuttle buses are available every hour from the Halle train station to the entrance of the woods. Visitors are urged to not come by car as much as possible and, when they do, they are advised to leave their vehicles at the free car park in the Welkomstlaan, from where they can get the shuttle, instead of the Hallerbos car parks, which will most likely be packed. Besides the free buses, the city of Halle is also making bicycles available for rent at the train station and, to encourage people to use them as much as possible, they are available for free during weekends and on public holidays.
The best way to explore the forest is by following the walking map or one of the three marked hiking loops (yellow, blue and white/black). To help any stray wanderers that lose the path, but also to make sure that everyone takes care of the forest during their visit, the city of Halle and the Flemish Agency for Nature and Forests have joined forces to deploy forest rangers and volunteers throughout the woods.
