Work Visit Festivals, Edinburgh, August 2011


 ‘There is no place on earth like Edinburgh in August’.
Through cooperation with festivals, government and businesses, Edinburgh succeeded in positioning itself as the festival capital of Europe. This not only results in more than 4 million visitors each year, but also in proud inhabitants.
To find inspiration in this 'Similar City' of Utrecht, representatives of Festivals in Utrecht, the Peace of Utrecht, the City of Utrecht and the Province of Utrecht, visited Edinburgh during the 18th to the 20th of August. Deputy Mayor Frits Lintmeijer interrupted his holiday in Scotland to participate in some parts of the program and Jan van Weijen, head of press and cultural affairs at the Dutch Embassy in London, also participated in several sessions with the delegation.
The purpose of the visit was to learn from the cooperation between the festivals in Edinburgh and to get inspired to strengthen the partnerships with the different Festivals in Utrecht. This would be a good basis for the road to 2018, when Utrecht aims to become cultural capital of Europe. This journey established international contacts and lots of new insights for the delegation to bring back to Utrecht. This quote from one of the delegation members illustrates this:

Bram Buijze (Peace of Utrecht):' I come back with the sense of urgency to strengthen the cooperation between Festivals in Utrecht and to give them a formal status, comparable to the status of Festivals in Edinburgh. Next to that, I obtained the perspective that festivals become more attractive and thus an inescapable partner for the government and the business community.''

The festival tour was an initiative of Francy Derks in cooperation with the city of Utrecht, Department of International Affairs and was financially supported by the Municipality of Utrecht, Utrecht Province and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.