Belgian Border Bangers 2027

Two nights along the Belgian border with France, self-guided, 388 kilometres of small roads with a campsite and a bonfire at the end of each day.

This is the second running of the event, on a completely different route from the first but with the same intent: find the smallest roads near the border, point a cheap car down them and see what happens.

The start is at Zillebeke, just outside Ypres in West Flanders, which is quiet farming country now and was the Ypres Salient a century ago, with the cemeteries and memorials still threaded through the fields the route passes. From there 388 kilometres of back roads follow the French border south and west, through a landscape that is flatter than most driving routes but considerably more intricate: narrow lanes, cobbled sections, canal crossings and villages a few hundred metres apart. The field is capped at fifty cars. The campsites come with a bonfire and, as the organisers put it, other idiots in cars like yours, which on an event of this kind is most of the appeal.

Each person in the car needs a ticket, and the campsites are included. The price shown should be checked against the live page, which quotes €150 per participant. Early May 2027 is the date. Three days and under four hundred kilometres makes this the gentlest thing the organiser runs and the easiest to reach from Britain, since Zillebeke is well under two hours from Calais. For a first attempt at the format it asks very little of either the car or the driver.