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Riga - a success story?
Some brief points which have been discussed during the Riga 2014 final conference held on the 12th and 13th May:
The Minister responsible for Culture lamented the delay in the commencement of the tourism campaign and the lack of infrastructure or delay in finishing them. The Minister also announced the intention to nominate Latvian Cities of Culture as a legacy outcome of the ECOC.
Funding and Tourist Arrivals
Budget of Euro 27.3 million mainly sourced from national and city funding
45% of budget directly sourced from public funds, with another 43% indirectly publicly-funded.
Business sector provided 2% of funds through sponsorships etc.
1 million tourist arrivals in 2014, an increase in +15%
Cultural Programme
70-80% of Bid Book projects have been implemented
488 events; 160 projects; 114 organisers; 10400 days of events; 200 weeks of events; 28 events a day
Main types of events:
- 24% concerts
- 21% exhibitions
- 19% creative workshops
- 63% of events were free;
- 92% of events took place in Riga;
- 47% of events were organized by NGOs
- 61% of projects did not involve active participation of citizens (i.e. citizens were a passive, rather than active, audience)
- 37% of events were ticketed; 63% free
- 47% of projects were organised by NGOs (an open call was held to entice NGOs to engage with the organization of ECOC-related events)
Attendance to events:
§ 76% of Riga population calculated to have attended at least one ECOC event
§ Attendees were predominantly women (over 60%)
§ 77% of the audience at events were from Riga
§ 1.4% of audiences were from other countries
Volunteering programme
- 83% or volunteers were women
- Different ages varying from 14 to 83 years
- Average age 22 years
- A large number of seniors who did not properly register for the volunteering scheme so were not included in the above data
- Mostly from Riga and region around Riga (1,000 volunteers were from Riga)
The Riga 2014 Foundation will be closing down in august
EU Japan Fest
EU Japan Fest final funding confirmation would arrive around April 2017 since their financial year closes in March so actual funding available would be confirmed then
Co-funding to be used to kick-off project until actual funding arrives
Other ECoCs
Wroclaw will be launching their programme in June; San Sebastien will be launching their full programme in September
Graziella Vella
« Military bands as cultural event July | Umeå 2014 »