The immersive ‘Bubble Planet’ experience at Brussels’ Tour & Taxis site reached its 6,000-person daily cap on 2 November 2025, All Souls’ Day, forcing organisers to turn away walk-up customers for the first time since opening in July. Pre-booked slots for every hour between 10:00 and 17:00 sold out by Saturday evening, thanks to a combination of school-holiday tourists and stay-cationing locals seeking indoor activities on a rainy weekend.
With onsite parking limited to 450 spaces—and already partly occupied by a vintage-flea market in the Gare Maritime hall—Tour & Taxis sent push notifications urging ticket-holders to arrive by train to Brussels-Nord and connect to electric shuttle buses or to use tram 51. Organisers reported that 58 % of attendees complied, up from 42 % in September.
![Tour & Taxis ‘Bubble Planet’ hits capacity on All Souls’ Sunday—organisers urge visitors to go car-free]()
The site’s mobility manager, Anke Verplancke, said the car-free push avoided spill-back onto the inner ring road, which was already coping with diversions from the Brussels Marathon. In a debrief with city officials she argued that temporary crowd-management measures—extra way-finding, real-time occupancy displays and bilingual staff at tram stops—should become permanent as Tour & Taxis evolves into a major mixed-use district.
For employers with assignees in the nearby North Quarter, the episode underscores the growing need to monitor weekend event calendars, as leisure traffic increasingly affects Sunday evening airport transfers and Monday-morning commutes. Digital relocation guides are now adding live links to the city’s event-mobility dashboard so expatriates can plan around pop-up congestion.
‘Bubble Planet’ continues until January 2026; organisers say they will cap future weekends at 5,000 visitors and may introduce discounted STIB day-passes bundled with admission.
With onsite parking limited to 450 spaces—and already partly occupied by a vintage-flea market in the Gare Maritime hall—Tour & Taxis sent push notifications urging ticket-holders to arrive by train to Brussels-Nord and connect to electric shuttle buses or to use tram 51. Organisers reported that 58 % of attendees complied, up from 42 % in September.
The site’s mobility manager, Anke Verplancke, said the car-free push avoided spill-back onto the inner ring road, which was already coping with diversions from the Brussels Marathon. In a debrief with city officials she argued that temporary crowd-management measures—extra way-finding, real-time occupancy displays and bilingual staff at tram stops—should become permanent as Tour & Taxis evolves into a major mixed-use district.
For employers with assignees in the nearby North Quarter, the episode underscores the growing need to monitor weekend event calendars, as leisure traffic increasingly affects Sunday evening airport transfers and Monday-morning commutes. Digital relocation guides are now adding live links to the city’s event-mobility dashboard so expatriates can plan around pop-up congestion.
‘Bubble Planet’ continues until January 2026; organisers say they will cap future weekends at 5,000 visitors and may introduce discounted STIB day-passes bundled with admission.
