Authorities are investigating whether fireworks or a thunderstorm damaged a historic museum after a €5 million Independence Day celebration.
Milena Wälde
U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White insisted Brussels’ Parc du Cinquantenaire was left spotless after his lavish celebration marking 250 years of American independence, as Belgian authorities probe whether fireworks damaged one of the capital’s historic buildings.
“We are in immediate contact with the Belgian company that was hired to coordinate all event logistics, including the fireworks company,” White wrote on X on Friday. He said the contractor would “remediate where it is required” and insisted that “Cinquantenaire has never looked any cleaner than it was the day after we cleaned up after our event,” posting photographs of the park looking immaculate.
More than 8,800 invited guests attended the June 28 celebration — one of the biggest diplomatic receptions ever staged in Brussels — organized by White, featuring a large fireworks display beneath the triumphal arch and a gala held in Cinquantenaire’s Royal Museum of Art and History building.
