Martelange carnival, after facing cancellation on the Belgian side of the border, will now take place on Luxembourgish soil on 6 March.

A number of popular Belgian carnivals have been cancelled this year due to ongoing concerns over Covid-19. However, the people of Martelange will not have to miss out, following a decision to hold the event a short distance away, in Rombach, Luxembourg.

Geneviève Nirvalet, president of the carnival committee, told RTBF that organisers had opted to take advantage of their proximity to the border, as well as Luxembourg's less strict Covid measures.

It is not the first time a cross-border carnival has taken place, as both municipalities collaborated in 2015 to put on a joint event.

Jean-Luc Differding, vice-president of the carnival committee, told Belgian media that Covid conditions on their side of the border had been untenable, with organisers required to use four kilometres of crowd-control barriers to create "parks" for carnival-goers, creating an atmosphere more akin to a cattle market than a carnival.

Luxembourg still has some Covid measures in place, such as a crowd limit of 2,000 people, but was otherwise more flexible with regard to organising the event, Differding added.

Nirvalet explained the event would be more of a "carnival-lite", with a parade and no tents, due to the short notice.