City Link Festival in Edinburgh

The cultural festival City Link was held in 2015 in Edinburgh, which was the third city we invited to join the growing international network of people interested in the development of urban spaces and culture.

The challenge

The creation of a sustainable platform for activists, innovators, grassroots organizations, architects, urban entrepreneurs and many others, started as a collaboration between Hamburg and Copenhagen a few years earlier. In 2014 the first City Link Festival was held in Hamburg, and here the concept of inviting a new town into the network every year arose.

Immediately after the Scottish vote for independence from Great Britain there was a need to rethink democracy, local co-creation and bottom-up initiatives. With the City Link Festival in Edinburgh our aim was:

• To shape a neutral democratic platform for dialogue between the public and the private sectors – between citizens and institutions.
• To facilitate new and enriching relations between local and international actors.
• To exchange best-practice and detailed knowledge on urban regeneration through international mirroring in other cities.

The City Link Festival was to provide the framework and allow for expansion of the network and thus provide a platform for exchange of national experiences in the relational urban development across national borders.

The solution
Quickly it became clear that we were working with a unique momentum.

Our experience from Hamburg the year earlier made it possible for us to develop the City Link method: to involve actors from a variety of professions and shape a cooperating culture within the festival’s various elements:

• Symposium and workshops.
• Exhibitions and installations.
• Biking trips with poetic and musical features.
• Dinners with local flavours from the different cities.

All of the events were gathered under the headline “Democratic Renewal” in an event programme that spread across the whole of the city, both indoors and outdoors.

City Link Festival i Edinburgh

Kulturfestivalen City Link blev i 2015 afholdt i Edinburgh, som var den tredje by, vi inviterede ind i det voksende internationale netværk af by- og kulturinteresserede.

Udfordring
Skabelsen af en bæredygtig platform for aktivister, idémagere, græsrødder, arkitekter, urbane entreprenører m.fl. startede mellem Hamborg og København et par år forinden. I 2014 blev den første City Link Festival afholdt i Hamborg, og der opstod konceptet om at invitere en ny by ind i netværket hvert år.

Umiddelbart efter den skotske afstemning om uafhængighed fra Storbritanien var behovet for at nytænke demokrati, lokal samskabelse og bottom up initiativer i fokus. Med City Link Festival i Edinburgh var vores sigte derfor:

• At skabe en neutral demokratisk platform for dialog mellem den offentlige og private sektor – mellem borgere og institutioner.
• At facilitere nye berigende relationer mellem lokale og internationale aktører.
• At udveksle best practice og specificeret viden på byfornyelsesområdet gennem international spejling i andre byer.

City Link Festival skulle danne ramme og skabe mulighed for udvidelse af netværket og dermed udgøre en platform for udveksling af nationale erfaringer med den relationelle byudvikling på tværs af landegrænser.

Løsning
Det stod hurtigt klart, at vi havde at gøre med et unikt momentum. Erfaringen fra Hamborg året forinden tillod os at udvikle på City Link-metoden; at involvere aktører fra en bred vifte af professioner og samarbejdskulturer i festivalens forskellige elementer:

• Symposium og workshops.
• Udstillinger og installationer.
• Cykelture med poetiske og musikalske indslag.
• Middage med lokale smagsindtryk fra de forskellige byer.

Alle var begivenheder, der samledes under overskriften “Democratic Renewal” i et program, der spredte sig over hele byen, indendørs som udendørs.