A BITE OUT OF OUR PINK WORLD www.pinkinourlives.com
After an intense few months for the eleven candidates competing for the title of Mister Belgium 2016 with press conferences, shows and training schedules the time for the Finale Show was here last Saturday.
On Saturday the 28th of May the Elckerlyck Theatre in Antwerp opened its doors to the crowd at 8pm, 
but VIPS and Sponsors were invited to be there at 18.30 for some refreshments (read: bubbles ;p) and fingerfood. So we mingled and took pictures of the attendees like for example Mister Gay Germany Aaron Koenigs, Mister Gay World Roger Cosalbez, Showqueen Sacha Ryan and Miss Belgian Travestie Dina Delvaux, model Vincent Banic
, Mister Gay Netherlands 1st Runner-up Steven van Akelijen
and presenter/actor Kurt Rogiers.
.
Around 20.00 the show started with a great opening that set the tone for the rest of the evening. The boys 
had a full schedule with dance performances, testing their knowledge about our LGBT community, catwalk run in swimwear and answering important questions on the sofa with presenter and organizer Bram Bierkens about our LGBT community.
The show took around four hours with a break of a half hour. With many guest appearances from Eurovision Songtest candidate Axel Hirsoux, artists Dana Winner
and Dimitri Vantomme
till showqueen Miss Ivana
you couldn’t be bored or fall asleep. When organizer Bram and current title holder Skelte Willems reviewed his year in pictures on stage, they couldn’t kept their eyes dry and you could tell they had built a good friendship over the year. This year was the second time of the show in Elckerlyck Theatre and it definitely improved. The election gets every year more and more attention and gets bigger and bigger. The venue was sold out and this year there was an after-party. One of the candidates of the previous year Joachim 
pumped up the music after everybody wanted a picture with the new mister.
Impression of the event:
Around midnight the votes from the 16 jury members and the online voting were in and it was time to
know who will follow 2015 winner Skelte Willems in his footsteps. Skelte will always be the last winner of Mr. Gay Vlaanderen, because this year the title has changed to Mister Gay Belgium to make it more international. Second runner-up became Ignace Vermeulen, first runner-up Abdellah Bijat and the NEW Mister Gay Belgium 2016 is RAF VAN PUYMBROECK!!!
Other prizes were for mister Congeniality Sidney Demeulemeester
, Mister charity for selling most chocolates in the campaign “Say NO with pralines to bullying, gay-bashing and discrimination” became Lenz Borgenon
and mister Photogenic was also won by Raf Van Puymbroeck.
.
CONGRATULATIONS from Pink In Our Lives and I to all the candidates for their performance on stage and off 
course to all the winners of this 2016 edition in search of the best Belgian ambassador of the LGBT community. We think Raf will do a great job and look forward to see how his campaign will be. Thanks to Bram and his partner Ivan Denis for doing a great job and that we could have been a part of it and thanks to photographers Emmanuel De Prijcker, Wilfried Peersman, Johan Cansse and Rene Emmerink for the pictures. If you have missed the whole show, you can still watch the live stream version here on youtube:
See more at www.mrgaybelgium.be and please follow us for more about the contestants at Facebook, Youtube, Instagram , Twitter or Tumblr
Big kiss,
Lesley Middleton