Far from being a gathering of stands, Creativa is intended to be a place of experience. Until Sunday, 3000 workshop places to discover or perfect your technique
“Madame, what are they doing over there?“. Sitting around round tables, the children participate in different workshops and the little girl who makes colored spots on her sheet is obviously more interested in the activity of the other table, where it weaves pieces of socks and other textiles cut into strips.. Indeed, it looks great and the adults who pass not far from CultureKids, a section dedicated to children of the Creativa fair, stop to look… before heading off to their own workshop appointment!
Because that is the whole reason for being and the pleasure of Créativa. Because it is the unmissable meeting place for people who like to “do” rather than simply buy. For 22 years (and 250 editions all over Belgium, France but also in Russia!), this show which takes place at Brussels Expo every year has met with the same success. It all started with patchwork, one of the most sociable creative hobbies since it was born from the exchange of scraps of fabric between amateur seamstresses! “That’s the whole point of creative hobbies, it’s to create contact and social ties”. And it’s not the ladies who display their patchwork at the back of the show and run the stand, the Madammekes du Patch, who will say the opposite!
Also the founder, Florent Godin is on the lookout for trends: “We relaunched the content. A show where there is only commercial stands is simply a shopping center after all. However, what people want is to be offered an experience, to watch, learn, do for themselves, discover, taste. We worked a lot on it and this year, we are still offering 3000 workshop places over 4 days and 20 spaces dedicated to different creative worlds.“.
In terms of trends, there is no great revolution, sewing remains the hobby that attracts the greatest number, followed by scrapbooking which has made a huge breakthrough in the last 10 years and by knitting. “Sewing is really making a comeback. Today, we no longer sew for reasons of savings but because we want to create ourselves, we want to customize, we want to have fun. !”, notes Florent Godin. The show has teamed up with Burda for even more workshops and events. And participants in the show are not left out: for the first time, sewing workshops for men (sewing a boxer) are offered on the stand of Marianne K.
On this morning of the first day, it is the regulars (there are many more women than men!) who arrive first. We stop at the cooking area where Eric Boschman concocts a recipe with advice and good jokes, but it is above all the sewing workshops that fill up very quickly. “I sewed when I was younger and I really want to get back to it so I thought it was the opportunity and I signed up! Little by little I’m finding the feelings again and I admit that I really like getting back to it” says Maryam, 59, who listens carefully to the advice of the pro who goes from machine to machine.
Recycling, the do-it-yourself is on the rise
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“Subsequently, the public becomes more family-oriented, younger too: Do-It-Yourself is a way of life that young people like a lot, we recycle, we repair, we throw away less!“, underlines the founder.
The show is alive: everyone comes and goes of course, but the jewelery stands are not set in stone: creative jewelery is popular and it’s not here that we’re going to leave with a ready-made necklace! “Here, we have systems that show how we tie chains together to make totally different creations,” we explain.
At the bend of an alley, we come across a stand of a lady who has no equal to talk about original kitchen utensils and accessories, as on the markets: it’s simple, we want to buy everything . Or a system for changing broken pullers (zippers) (medal at the 2015 Lépine competition). but for these few ready-made products, how many stands to make!
In the program
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- This Thursday evening the 13th, a parade of designers who love little dresses in printed fabric is eagerly awaited.
- New this year: a cake design area, a foodie discipline that is a hit with thematic masterclasses and the presence of Silvia Mancini, a recognized Italian cake designer who masters the techniques to perfection. Impressive, his creations are more real than nature. But also Maité Sartieaux (young Belgian cake designer) who will work a lucky luck.
- Friday evening, parade of 8 sugar paste dresses on Friday evening. We have already seen creation parades in chocolate, Cake & Sugar innovates and parades in sugar paste.
> Creative, du Thursday 13 to Sunday 16 February 2020 & Cake & Sugar from 14 to 15/02. Hall 3, Brussels Expo