The Crystal Ship Summit

In addition to all the cycling and walking routes, The Crystal Ship is offering a host of creative talks for this tenth edition. On 31 March and 1 April, The Crystal Ship Summit will take place for the first time at De Grote Post in Ostend.

UBN FOCUS, invited by The Crystal Ship

Proud to kick off our traveling, spontaneous mini Us By Night edition, curating four past Us By Night highlights in a more classic theatre setup. No side events, pure focus, easy, yet top-notch content.

For our very first edition, we are heading to Ostend at the Belgian seaside. Invited by The Crystal Ship, the renowned contemporary street art festival, we land in a city where Belle Époque grandeur, modernist blocks, and raw post-war architecture collide along the North Sea. The venue is De Grote Post, a beautiful modernist cultural building.

Timetable

• 17:00 – Doors open

• 18:00 – Lydia Roberts (2025)

• 18:45 – Bráulio Amado (2025)

• Break

• 20:00 – Isabel + Helen (2024)

• 20:45 – SO-ME (2025)

• Drinks

Line-up

Lydia Roberts

An artist and photographer from England. The root of her interest lies within image making that remains unaffected by time, with the human form emerging as a reoccurring motif. She currently lives and works in the Occitanie region of France.

Instagram
Website

Bráulio Amado

A Portuguese graphic designer and illustrator currently living in New York City. He worked at Pentagram and Bloomberg Businessweek, and now runs his own practice under the name BAD STUDIOS, doing a lot of posters and record covers.

Instagram
Website

Isabel + Helen

A design duo, communicating ideas through performative sculpture. Underpinned by an ongoing exploration of movement, materials and mechanisms, their work embodies a spirit of change and transformation.

Instagram
Website

SO-ME

So-Me, whose real name is Bertrand de Langeron, is a multidisciplinary French artist. A graphic designer, director, musician, and producer, he is best known for his role as the art director of the electronic music label Ed Banger Records, founded by Pedro Winter (aka Busy P).

Instagram
Iconoclast.tv

Bring UBN Focus to Your City

UBN Focus is built to travel. We are looking for unique venues, key cities, and forward-thinking brands to host future flash events. If you want to bring the UBN curation to your town, please contact laetitia@usbynight.be.

EXPERT CONFERENCE

On 1 April, Tourism Ostend, in collaboration with Street Art Cities, is organising the Expert Conference, the professional section of The Crystal Ship Summit. This afternoon event brings together an international network of professionals from the fields of culture, tourism and street art to share knowledge and discuss current issues within the field. Keynotes and panel discussions will explore themes such as artistic freedom in public spaces, the social impact of street art and the interaction between street art and tourism. The Expert Conference aims to provide participants with concrete insights that can be immediately applied within their own organisations.

Timetable

• 12:30 - 13:00 – Welcome
• 13:00 - 13:30 – Kick-off Pitch
• 13:30 - 14:20 – Panel discussion 1
• 14:30 - 15:20 – Panel discussion 2
• 15:20 - 15:30 – Break
• 15:30 - 16:20 – Panel discussion 3
• 16:20 - 16:40 – Pitch
• 16:45 - 17:00 – Wrap-up
• 17:00 - 18:00 – Drinks

Panel discussions

• ‘City as canvas’ who decides what stays up, and why
• Street Art: real social impact or artwashing?
• Street art and tourism: where promotion helps, and where it hurts