East London festivals

Another feature of the area of East London is its incredible programme of festivals, for example, many of which had been developed from the bottom up, from the creative community here and today they play a role on the national or international level in terms of what they offer. There is for example the London Design Festival, which grew out of the East London warehouses – because it made a sense to do it here. There were lots of design companies present here and they wanted to play a role in doing something together. In this part of East London they developed what is now one of the biggest design festivals in the world. There is the British Light Festival which is an incredible presentation of some of the crazy talents from the local music, visual or performing arts.

These all have been driven from the bottom, by the creatives themselves, not by the local authorities trying to make things happen. The local municipality has realised very early on they need to work in partenrship with the creative community. To make the most of the creative and cultural businesses in any city, they need to be given a space to be creative, space to do things together, then they can play a truly transformational role in any city wherever in the world.

CultureFighter

Tom Fleming

Related fights

More fights by Tom Fleming

Tom Fleming