Hundreds of revellers visited Brussels' Christmas market despite a spike in COVID-19 cases across Europe and Belgium.

Footage from December 16 shows dozens of groups walking around the stalls and using their COVID passes to enter.

While Christmas markets and other end-of-year public festivities are banned in a lot of cities in Belgium due to the coronavirus, you can still enjoy the Christmas market in Brussels. Although the Mayor of Brussels Philippe Close (Francophone socialist) has said that people that haven’t been vaccinated against coronavirus should stay away from it. The Christmas market has been a big crowd-puller with many tens of thousands of people having visited it in previous years.

Located in the historic city centre, the largest and most famous Christmas market has over two hundred wooden chalets.

Bracelets like those given to festival goers are issued to those in possession of a valid Covid Safe Ticket. The bracelets are required if a visitor wishes to eat or drink something at one of the refreshment stalls. The bracelets that are valid for one day can be collected from a total of ten distribution points around the city centre upon showing the proof (eg via the Covid Safe app on your smartphone) that you have been double vaccinated.