In Belgium a mullet is not a haircut, it´s a state of mind

BOUSSU: Belgium is all business at the front, in the very serious EU capital Brussels, but it´s all party at the back, in the little western town of Boussu.

Here, outside an artisanal brewery, hundreds of nostalgics and merry-makers gathered on Saturday to celebrate the mullet, the iconic 1980s hairdo.

For some it´s a throwback to a simpler time, for others an anti-fashion statement or simply a bit of a laugh -- for folklore specialists it celebrates "dewanne", tomfoolery in the Borinage dialect.

"This cut is a state of mind, a declaration of independence. It carries symbolic weight as an affirmation of self," organiser Damien Hubert told AFP, explaining how the festival evolved from a music video film shoot.

"To be honest, I´m not sure that many people ever found the cut very attractive. We´re not kidding ourselves about that," he admitted.

Laid back outback Australia has hosted mullet festivals in the past, but organisers think that Boussu´s -- which they hoped would attract around 1,500 people -- is a first in Europe.

Many of those who turned out on Saturday for a beer and a bold trim were thirty and forty-somethings nostalgic for the age of rocker Rod Stewart, footballer Chris Waddle or the US adventure series MacGyver, in which the lead character sports a mullet.

"When I was little, I was in love with MacGyver, this is like a return to my childhood," said 31-year-old Marie Vandeville as she went under the razor. "I´ll only leave it a few days, afterwards we´ll even it up."