Donk, Antwerp

Ezaart is one of the 12 townships in the municipality Mol in Belgium. It had 3332 inhabitants (31 December 2013). The township also includes "Hessie" which was formerly part of Millegem and therefore Geel.

Mol (Dutch pronunciation: [mɔl] (listen)) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Mol. In 2021, Mol had a total population of 37,021 inhabitants. The total area is 114.19 km2. Mol is a popular holiday resort, with many lakes surrounded by woods. There are two main tourist lakes: Zilvermeer, which opened as a Provincial Park in 1959 and offers a white sand beach as well as facilities such as an outdoor playground and an underwater museum for divers. Zilverstrand: Originally, it had only an outdoor lake with a white sand beach. Later, a caravan park was built and mid-1990s an indoor swimming pool was created.Furthermore, there is a Sun Parks holiday centre called "Kempense Meren" with an indoor swimming pool. The museum of Jakob Smits is located in the former vicarage of Mol-Sluis. This displays works of the artist Jakob Smits (1855-1928) and other painters of the Molse School, who were attracted to the area by its rustic views including several windmills (of which only one remains). In the north-east corner of Mol, near the Dutch border, lies the Norbertine Postel Abbey. Mol is also home to the SCK•CEN Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, the Flemish institute for technological research (VITO) and a European School. The first industries in Mol were the Vieille Montagne company and the explosive factory N.V. La Forcite. In 1872 the Sablières et Carrières Réunies (SCR), now Sibelco, was founded in order to extract the silica sand layers in Mol for industrial applications. The company became the global market leader in this sector with production sites all over the world. The 15 chapels were built by Pater Helsen in 1815 with 14 co-workers of the region. It is a protected monument.

SCK CEN (the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre), until 2020 shortened as SCK•CEN, is the Belgian nuclear research centre located in Mol, Belgium, more specifically near the township of Donk. SCK CEN is a global leader in the field of nuclear research, services, and education.

Meerhout (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmeːrɦʌu̯t]) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Meerhout proper. In 2021, Meerhout had a total population of 10,279. The total area is 36.29 km² which gives a population density of 264 inhabitants per km². In Meerhout some famous people have lived, like Kate Ryan (well known in France and Belgium, The UK, Turkey, Spain and the rest of western Europe). Meerhout is a part of the Economic Network of the Albertkanaal (Albert Canal, named after King Albert 1).

Graspop Metal Meeting is a Belgian heavy metal festival held in Dessel each year since 1996, excluding 2020 and 2021 due to covid restrictions. Despite the small size of the festival grounds (upholding a perimeter of only ~4 km) the festival draws a large number of spectators from around Europe, with a total of 220,000 visitors in 2022, up from 200,000 visitors over the course of the 2019 edition, and 152,000 in 2015.

Dessel (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdɛsəl] (listen)) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises only the town of Dessel proper. In 2021, Dessel had a total population of 9,659 inhabitants. The total area is 27.03 km².

Balen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbaːlə(n)] (listen)) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Balen proper and Olmen. In 2021, Balen had a population of 22,853. Total area is 72.88 km².

The Princes Park in Retie (Dutch: Prinsenpark) is located in the Campine region of the Antwerp province in Flanders, Belgium. It is a popular park for walking, jogging, cycling and sightseeing.

Lorzestraat is a multi-use stadium in Dessel, Belgium. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of K.F.C. Dessel Sport. The stadium holds 5,000 people.

Groezrock was an annual music festival that took place in Meerhout, Belgium. It started as a small rock and pop festival with one stage and a few hundred people attending, but evolved into a large punk rock/hardcore punk festival, with attendances exceeding 30,000. The festival had one stage until 2003, when it added a second stage called Back-to-Basics, which was reserved for more hardcore-oriented bands. Since 2006 the festival has taken place over multiple days, and grew to three stages in 2009 and four stages in 2012. It was announced in October 2017 that the 2018 edition of Groezrock would not be taking place in the Spring, and would instead be an indoor festival in the autumn. The festival have stated that they will be "back in full force" with the usual format in 2019.

Olmen is a village that lies in Belgium, in the province of Antwerp. The village is part of the municipality of Balen. Olmen is known in the area for its Carnival, which still follows medieval traditions.

Pakawi Park is a zoo in the Belgian village Olmen which is part of the town of Balen. Until 22 June 2019 it was named "Olmense Zoo".The zoo was opened in 1976 by Louis Roothooft, a former captain. He used to live near Antwerp where he had a private collection of foreign animals. He bought some land in Olmen and moved his animals to the new location. The Olmen Zoo was founded. As Roothooft loved the circus a big circus tent was soon placed. Each day the animal carers did performance acts with the animals. Roothooft died mid 1990s and the park was sold to the family Verheyen in 1995. The new owners also had a private collection of animals which were now transported to Olmen. The park was in a bad condition due to mismanagement of Roothooft, cages were not adapted to the animal needs and the number of customers was too low to make sufficient profits. That's why the park was renovated. The investments did succeed: the number of visitors raised from 9,000 to 200,000 in the first year. The circus tent was removed and no more acts were given. On 11 October 2017, the zoo lost its license and was closed due to animal welfare breaches. On 18 November 2017, the zoo reopened with a new license, after fixing most problems and making a new masterplan.The zoo is now specialized in felidae: African lions, white tigers, black leopards, Eurasian lynx, Servals, and cougars. The zoo has more than 200 different birds such as parrots, owls, eagles, flamingos, gruiformes and threskiornithidae. The zoo has of course other animals such as simian, rodents, small mammals, deers, snakes and bears.