US Independence Party in Brussels Sparks Controversy

A massive party to celebrate 250 years of U.S. independence will shut one of Brussels’ most prominent public parks for up to 36 hours, test the city’s security to its limits, use facial recognition technology — and potentially harm birds.

Amid heightened tension between Europe and Donald Trump’s White House over his imposition of trade tariffs, threats to seize Greenland and the war in Iran, the scale of the undertaking on June 28 is huge. While the official guest list stands at around 5,000, roughly 8,000 invitations have been sent out, a U.S. official familiar with the planning told POLITICO. The official was granted anonymity to speak freely, as were others in this article.

In conversations with POLITICO, three U.S. officials have privately expressed doubts about whether such a logistically ambitious event, beneath the triumphal arches in Cinquantenaire Park and just a stone’s throw from the EU’s main institutions, can be pulled off. The main indoor portion of the venue, in the Autoworld museum, has a capacity of up to 1,500.

The celebration has also drawn a barrage of criticism, from local politicians and members of the European Parliament, who have questioned the timing amid strained ties between Washington and Brussels, to environmental activists worried about the impact of its planned half-hour fireworks display on the park’s swifts.

“I don’t think that a summer party will solve our tensions,” Brando Benifei, an MEP from the Socialists and Democrats who is chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with the U.S., told POLITICO.

He said there were clear “divergences” between the EU and the U.S., “from the Iran war to digital dependencies” and “certain attacks on Europe by Trump.” But, added Benifei, who was invited but said he cannot go, “I’m sure it will be a nice celebration.”

‘Momentous and fun’

The guest list includes Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, and thousands of politicians, diplomats, officials, military personnel and their families.

It’s the “most coveted party in town,” an ambassador from a southern European country who was invited told POLITICO. Bill White, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium who is in charge of organizing the event, predicted it “will be a phenomenal, fantastic, momentous and fun party in every way imaginable.”

Still, it remains divisive. “Belgium and the United States have long maintained strong and friendly relations,” said Elke Van den Brandt, mobility minister in the Brussels regional government. “At the same time, given the active dismantling of human rights by the current president, Donald Trump, this is not a moment I feel inclined to celebrate in that way. I do not think I am alone in this feeling, many of my European colleagues are asking the same questions about what kind of partner the United States wants to be.”

In a sign of the unusually tight security measures, guests have been asked to upload a photograph of their face in advance, three invitees told POLITICO, with the biometric data to be used for facial recognition at the entrance when they present their ID and a QR code. A second ambassador from a European country, who had to upload a photo of their own face and that of their spouse, told POLITICO they were taken aback by the measure.

A U.S. official told POLITICO the event’s registration form includes a link to a GDPR-compliant privacy policy, which states the photos will be deleted after the event.

“It’s the police, it’s the government, it’s the army,” said Alex Cautaerts, managing partner of DDMC Event Design, the Brussels firm hired by the U.S. embassy to organize the party, when asked by POLITICO how the event would be secured.

The park — which falls under the overlapping jurisdiction of the City of Brussels, the Brussels regional government and the Belgian federal government — will be closed to the public over much of the June 27-28 weekend. The entire park will be shut for 24 hours, or “max 36,” Brussels Mayor Philippe Close told POLITICO, adding there would be “protective and safety” measures due to the fireworks show.

Belgian animal welfare group Gaia has called for those fireworks to be canceled over concerns about their impact on animals. “At a time when [the Belgian federal] parliament is debating a nationwide ban on fireworks, it would be completely inconsistent to organize a pyrotechnic event of this scale in Brussels,” Gaia’s President Michel Vandenbosch said.

Brussels Environment, the region’s environmental agency, has requested an impact assessment about the celebration’s potential to disturb a colony of common swifts nesting in the park, Brussels State Secretary for the Environment Ans Persoons said.

One planned spectacle has already fallen by the wayside. A flyover by F-35 fighter jets was canceled after Federal Mobility Minister Jean-Luc Crucke refused to close Brussels’ airspace to accommodate it, arguing that doing so would “cause significant economic losses.” There will still be a flyover by “historic aircraft,” a U.S. official said.

Pet project

The United States has three ambassadors in Brussels: White; Andrew Puzder, the American envoy to the EU; and Matthew Whitaker, the ambassador to NATO. While all three are jointly hosting the event, it is White, a New York businessman and high-profile Trump donor, who is organizing it. He told Belgian media that he had raised €3.6 million from private donors, Belgian and American, to cover the expenses.

A U.S. official posted in Brussels stressed that Puzder and his mission had nothing to do with planning the celebration, insisting that it was all White’s doing, and questioned whether it would go off without a hitch, given the enormous logistical challenges. “But I’ll be there,” the official added with a grin.

The headline act is country group the Zac Brown Band, replacing legendary guitarist Nile Rodgers of Chic, who was previously announced to be headlining. Katy Perry, the American pop star, received an invitation, according to a U.S. official, but with a concert already scheduled in Brussels the night before, she was unavailable to perform because of contractual obligations. (Perry is in a relationship with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, derisively nicknamed “governor” Trudeau by Trump.)

Another U.S. official told POLITICO that the event was scheduled a week before July 4 — America’s actual Independence Day — to avoid any appearance of competing with Trump’s celebrations in Washington, which have faced troubles of their own after several musical acts pulled out of performing. White has said the Brussels bash will be the “most grand event of its type outside of the extraordinary events being hosted in America.”

The event will feature “a festival setting, remarks from senior U.S., Belgian, EU, and NATO leaders, and visual displays to cap off the evening including fireworks and a historic aircraft flyover,” a U.S. embassy spokesperson told POLITICO, adding it would be a party to “remember for generations to come.”

The event comes at a time of strained relations between Brussels and the Trump administration. The president has repeatedly described Europe as a weak, “decaying” continent and threatened tariffs if the EU does not fulfill its side of the Turnberry trade deal, while White himself has clashed with the Belgian government and was summoned by the foreign minister in February after making accusations of antisemitism.

While “250 years of American independence is a milestone for the American people,” Belgian MEP Sara Matthieu from the Greens said, “sadly, there is little reason to celebrate right now, not in the U.S., and not in Brussels.”

“If the U.S. once again chooses to strengthen democracy and build a world that is freer and fairer, it will find in Europe a willing partner to celebrate that anniversary together,” she added.

Tellingly, a European official working for a senior politician in Brussels on the invite list said their boss had not yet chosen whether to attend and would decide closer to June 28.

“It depends,” the official said. “We will wait to see who the U.S. invades next.”