New forms of festivals
New possibilities for events with social character are offered for example by Twitter. With the Twestival campaigns, especially fundraising events can be launched quickly and unbureaucratically. For example, private persons in Berlin restored and filled different urban green spaces with plants in one day, for which otherwise no public monies had been available.
According to their own statements, a Twestival (or Twitter festival) is a single-day global movement which uses the power of social media to organise so-called offline events that mobilize communities in support of local non-profit organisations. Since 2009, over 200 cities have participated in Twestival and raised about 800,000 Euros. For further information please visit www.twitter.com/twestival/
Festival inside the festival
In 2011, Ars Electronica in Linz created a new platform for children and young adults. “Create Your World” is the name of the future festival that should inspire, network and encourage young people to imagine the world of tomorrow, design new life patterns and realize them in experiments. With this “festival inside the festival“, the organisers want to initiate a long-term process, looking into the design of living spaces, technologies, society and art in a regional context and enabling the mobilisation, development and support of children and young adults.
The key aspect was expressed not only with regard to content. In some rooms of the Ars Electronica Center (AEC) and in the surrounding area, a camp was created with black yurts and a trailer and container park where workshops and meetings took place. For more information on “Create Your World”, please visit www.aec.at/cyw2011/en/about/
Do-it-yourself festival
The method of storytelling forms the basis of the Bicycle Film Festival. More than ten years ago, a young Brit on his bicycle was hit by a bus and injured. To link this negative experience with a positive action, he founded the Bicycle Film Festival in 2001. Each year, numerous bicycle riders meet under a particular motto in different countries and cities and perform music acts, art performances and movie screenings, usually on their own initiative. There is a Bicycle Film Festival in Vienna too: www.wiensteigtum.at
