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:
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:
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.
The primary aim was for an expansion of the network from Copenhagen and Hamburg also to involve Edinburgh.
1,300 participants. In addition to Scottish, Danish, German and Turkish participants, three other countries were represented.
14 events spread across all of Edinburgh.
City Link in Edinburgh presented among other things:
Selected speakers:
More information can be found at city-link.org and at City Links Facebook page.
You can read our evaluation of City Link Edinburgh here
The primary aim was for an expansion of the network from Copenhagen and Hamburg also to involve Edinburgh.
1,300 participants. In addition to Scottish, Danish, German and Turkish participants, three other countries were represented.
14 events spread across all of Edinburgh.
City Link in Edinburgh presented among other things:
Selected speakers:
More information can be found at city-link.org and at City Links Facebook page.
You can read our evaluation of City Link Edinburgh here