Trixxo Arena

Trixxo Arena is Hasselt’s large-format indoor room, with configurations for 4,000 to 18,000 people. Its distinguishing move came in 2012: managers built a fresh auditorium within the original shell, using permanent concrete seating and mobile tribunes to pull an exhibition-scale building closer around a concert crowd. Opened on 21 September 2004, the 13,600-square-metre arena sits within the former Grenslandhallen complex, now Park H.

Built for fairs, reworked for shows

Grenslandhallen began on 13 May 1983, when the City of Hasselt built the fair complex at Unizo Hasselt’s request. A study in 2000 called for expansion; construction of the arena began in March 2004, accompanied by the Plaza, Studio and artists’ foyer. Six months later, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis attended the opening. The project gave the fairground a hall engineered for large concerts, sport and extra exhibition floor.

In 2011, weaker finances drove the city and Grenslandhallen association toward privatized operations. Antwerp Sportpaleis took control on 1 January 2012 under a 27-year lease, followed that summer by a rebuild costing above €7 million that added seating, a coat check, bars and VIP space. Under its former Ethias Arena name, the room hosted Junior Eurovision on 26 November 2005; Ksenia Sitnik won for Belarus in Hasselt.

An arena that can tighten the frame

Today, the booking proposition is flexibility at arena scale: concerts share the building with sport, fairs and public productions, while its music program leans toward pop and folk. Fixed concrete stands plus moveable tribunes allow seated, standing and mixed configurations; the capacity range is useful shorthand for the experience, since a 4,000-person show occupies a much tighter room than an 18,000-person floor event. Extra bars, a permanent coat check and a VIP area arrived with the 2012 rebuild.