Frie Leysen (19 February 1950 – 22 September 2020) was a Belgian festival director. She was director of the art centre deSingel, Antwerp, from 1980 until 1991. In 1994, she co-founded the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels.

Frie Leysen was born in Hasselt on 19 February 1950^[1] as the daughter of Bert Leysen, the first programming director of the NIR,^[2] and the twin sister of actor Johan Leysen.^[3] She studied Medieval Art History at the University of Leuven.^[4]

Leysen was the first director of art centre deSingel in Antwerp, from 1980 to 1991.^[5]

Together with Guido Minne she founded the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in 1994.^[6] The first edition of the festival took place in May 1994. Under her direction the festival became an internationally-acclaimed major event for Belgian and international performing artists.^[7]

In 2007 she organised Meeting Points 5, a multidisciplinary festival taking place in nine different Arabic cities (Amman, Damascus, Beirut, Ramallah, Cairo, Alexandria, El Minia, Tunis, and Rabat), as well as in Brussels and Berlin.^[8]

She curated the Theater der Welt in 2010, was an artistic director at Berliner Festspiele in 2010-12, and was the artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen in 2013–14.

She curated the performing arts program of Homeworks 7 in Beirut in 2015.

After a period of illness, Leysen died on 22 September 2020 aged 70.^[2]

• 1991: Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord (Ark Prize of Free Speech)^[5]
• 2003: Flemish Community Award for general cultural contributions^[5]
• 2014: Honorary doctorate from the Free University of Brussels^[5]
• 2014: Erasmus Prize^[9]
• 2018: Co-recipient of the Bernadette Abraté Award, given by the French-speaking theatre critics in Brussels, with Christophe Slagmuylder, for their work at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts^[10]
• 2019: European Festivals Association (EFFE) lifetime achievement award, to acknowledge her commitment to artists and her actions for artists' creative freedom^[11]