Exuberant trips, sky-high bills and a mountain of debt. That seems to beBertrand Flamang’s legacy. The former organizer of Gent Jazz and JazzMiddelheim currently shuns the media, but former employees do want to open upabout their boss.
Gunter Van Assche and Dimitri ThijskensDecember 6, 202203:00
“A power-hungry megalomaniac.” It is not uncommon for Bertrand Flamang (54) tobe portrayed in this way by his ex-employees and insiders. Years of “extrememismanagement” under his reign of terror wreaked havoc at Gent Jazz and JazzMiddelheim.
“Be careful with Bertrand Flamang. A dangerous individual.” We were remindedof this repeatedly, long before the bankruptcy of the non-profit organizationJazz en Muziek was pronounced. “It’s an open secret that his business stinks.That someone like him has been able to go about his business unhindered for solong is partly due to the smoke screens he managed to pull up. But probablyalso because of the culture of fear he created in the workplace.”
Robbery by daylight
Nevertheless, most of them wanted to testify last week about the mismanagementthat led Gent Jazz and Jazz Middelheim to bankruptcy. “Without personalinterest, but from a concern for the artists, employees, visitors of bothfestivals and the cultural sector.” For years, Flamang plundered the non-profit organization behind both festivals. Unobstructed, but not unseen. Itsshameless robbery by daylight caused great internal frustration. Someemployees kept to themselves and resigned of their own accord.
The carousel of employees at both festivals is therefore long. “He sat on thethrone of that non-profit organization like a flabby king.” The monarch alsomaintained a reign of terror: “Flamang is someone for whom you had to be readyday and night, even at the most unusual moments. It goes without saying thatthe pressure is high before and during such a festival. But that pressure wasabnormally, inhumanly high. Flamang showed little respect for other people’sboundaries. No respect at all, actually. He seemed eager to break people.”
One disillusioned employee who could not hold back her tears in his presence,he publicly called “hysterical bitch”. She says she had to go to therapyafterwards. Another employee, in turn, claims that Flamang’s behavior andcheating almost drove him to an act of desperation. Resigning seemed the onlyway out in both cases. “Since I left, I could no longer physically or mentallymove myself to go to Gent Jazz. While it has always been one of my favoritefestivals. It may not sound great, but I’ve actually been waiting for thismoment for a few years now. The moment when the masks would fall.” Is Flamanga wolf in sheep’s clothing? Another employee wouldn’t even call him that.“It’s a pig. Horny for power, sexist and false.”
Schoffie and anarchist
Flamang previously claimed about himself that he never minces words and daresto take the initiative. That attitude led him from self-proclaimed “rascal andanarchist” in the 1980s to café owner in the 1990s and then to the status ofthe largest jazz festival organizer in this country. Little of that patinaremains today.
In tempore non suspecto, Bertrand Flamang was introduced in Knack as “awayward self-made man”. But that’s a description that didn’t exactly age asfine wine. A stubborn Machiavellian leans closer to the truth, it sounds fromwithin today. Everything seemed allowed for the preservation of power andself-interest. “Since his ‘departure’ in March, for example, he still invoicedthe non-profit organization a monthly amount of 13,000 euros. And in Septemberthis year he actually had all the strings in his hands again. Around that timeit was announced that an application had been submitted to move from the siteof the Oude Bijloke to the much larger Sint-Pietersplein. Such a megalomaniac,that could only come from Bertrand.”
The Turk
Before he would manage Gent Jazz and Jazz Middelheim, Flamang was the caféowner of Den Turk for four years. Strategically located opposite Ghent’s townhall, where politicians sometimes came to relax or have conversations duringand after work. It is believed that in this way he was able to establish closeties with the city authorities. That herring didn’t keep frying.
Flamang always started to live life to the fullest, even though things havebeen less prosperous at the non-profit organization in recent years. He didnot pay suppliers on time, and used his own pecking order. Suppliers of tentsand the interim office for the employees would now also be creditors in thebankruptcy. At one point, Flamang held five different bank cards in the nameof the non-profit organization Jazz en Muziek. One monthly statement fromAmerican Express even amounted to 36,000 euros, it now appears. Exuberant sumswere spent on travel, meals and wines.
For the time being, Bertrand Flamang is also still involved in theorganization of Mardi Gras on Braunplein during the Gentse Feesten, and in therestaurant SGOL under the Stadshal. However, these matters are separate fromthe bankrupt non-profit organization Jazz en Muziek.