Dec 24, 2018

What a year for nighttime advocacy across the world!

By VibeLab: Lutz Leichsenring & Mirik Milan • Issue #7 • View online

At VibeLab we have been guiding and consulting cities in taking direct action to design policies and urban spaces that ensure inclusive and vibrant nightlife.

We recognise that music venues are cultural assets that significantly enrich the social, cultural and economic life of cities worldwide.

This year has seen an increased understanding and awareness regarding the benefits that city planning after dark can bring to communities worldwide.

Yet as nighttime economies continue grow, so do new challenges, and we are proud to have been working closely with cities and communities to apply our knowledge and experience of nighttime advocacy.

Take a look at our highlights from the year:

NightCamps 2018

This year we have organised three NightCamps. The first in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Reykjavik in Iceland and New York in the US. A NightCamp is a direct action initiative that’s focused on gathering together stakeholders from the nightlife scene with city representatives, to discuss and act on the issues at hand.

Sao Paulo, Brazil NightCamp.

The stakeholders at the NightCamp come up with concrete solutions and action to support, grow and engage independent, DIY music venues and the communities that surround them, whilst taking into consideration the local residents, safety and effective city communication.

1. São Paulo, Brazil 02.03.2018

Back in March this year, VibeLab partnered with the Embassy of Germany in Brazil and Goethe Institut São Paulo and bought the NightCamp to São Paulo.

With 100 stakeholders from São Paulo’s nightlife scene and city representatives coming together to workshop and discuss themes surrounding “Production”, “Community” and “The City” as well as ways to support creative music communities.

3. Reykjavik, Iceland 06 to 07.09.2018

The city of Reykjavik assigned VibeLab to start a collaboration process between stakeholders of night time economy and culture. In this case, the NightCamp spanned two days. On day one we conducted a VibeLab workshop at the Museum of Modern Art, with attendees from various departments of the city municipality. On the second day, more than 30 promoters and operators of the art and music community also participated.

3. New York City, USA 28.09.2018

Our third NightCamp of the year brought together the key stakeholders from New York City’s nightlife and live music communities to proactively identify and tackle some of the key issues that they themselves are facing. The groups were divided into eleven focused working groups, where they identified realistic timelines with goals, KPI’s and the tangible next steps for implementing these policies.

“What we shouldn’t do is just lean back and wait for the government to do it, we have to step up, we have to be a part of the solution!” Lutz Leichsenring Co-founder of VibeLab

Watch the Night Camp video here:

The NightCamp also coincided with the launch of our Creative Footprint NYC report on the health and vibrancy of the cities live music scene. The year-long study was undertaken by 150 key stakeholders from the NYC live music scene and resulted in more than 25,000 data points being collected for about 495 venues, with representatives from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard to contributing insights, recommendations and rich spatial analysis maps of the city.

Read more about the Creative Footprint here:

NY Times

CITYLAB

Resident Advisor

If you are interested in reading our full Creative Footprint report, you can download the study here.

4. Vancouver, Canada 27.04.2018

Mirik Milan, our Vibe Lab Co-founder and one of the first Night Mayors of Amsterdam, visited Vancouver, to share how his city revitalised its nightlife.

Talking to politicians, planners and business owners about the importance of nightlife to the city’s economy and what can be done to improve the Granville Entertainment District (GED).

Mirik went onto CKNW Lynda Steell Show to discuss the most successful initiative, that helped to cut down on Amsterdam’s public disorder (of the type seen in Vancouver’s Granville strip, which is allowing 24-hour clubs.

Granville Street- Vancouver

In the six years that he was in the job, Milan said Amsterdam has seen:

A 25-per-cent drop in alcohol-related harm
A 30-per-cent drop in nuisance calls.

Following Mirik’s talk at City Hall in Vancouver, on May 2, 2018, Vancouver Council approved an amendment directing staff, as part of the City’s Creative City Strategy, to establish a “Nightlife Council” that combines safety, security, transportation, economic development, and vibrant street life, integrating lessons learned from the Granville Entertainment District Safety and Security Working Group.

Whilst in Vancouver, Mirik took part in a panel discussion, SAVE SPACE- The Future of Vancouver Nightlife that looked at what could be done differently to make the scene safer, more fun and preserve venues that support grassroots talent but face rising rents.

Want to know more about progress in Vancouver?

You can read more about Mirik’s visit to Vancouver here and here
Watch the panel discussion on No Fun radio here
And Listen to Mirik on the BIB podcast here
And read the report on Vancouver Music Strategy

5. Prague, Czech Republic 14.06.2018

reSITE is a global non-profit organisation that hosts a yearly festival in Prague, celebrating design, development and improving the quality of life in cities. This year Mirik attended the festival and gave a talk on the importance of creativity, his role and life as Night Mayor, the need for a culturally diverse nightlife, the issue of light pollution, and how to combat gentrification in relation to nightlife.

“We always say that you can’t buy creativity. Creativity is something that has to be nurtured.”

Want to know about the role and responsibility of nightlife when it comes to gentrification? Or how can cities do a better job of becoming 24/7 places? Read the great reSITE interview with Mirik.

“I always say that you can only influence people’s behaviour from the grassroots up, and that means that you need to make people engaged with their surrounding area. Content, music, and all cultural activities at night make people engaged, and when they are engaged they are more likely to behave better when they leave nighttime establishments.”

- Mirik Milan

6. Berlin, Germany 08.09.2018

Co-founder Lutz Leichsenring was invited by author and researcher Charles Landry to speak at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival about “How Clubcommission and Night Mayors Influence Policies for Cities After Sunset”. The discussion with council members Clara West (SPD) and Christian Goiny, was moderated by Jan Lerch (former club operator) and bought to light the importance of maintaining effective communication between civic and DIY groups.

7. Stockholm, Sweden 11 to 12.09.2018

Nordic Night Mayor Summit @Gather Festival

After a year of unprecedented growth around nightlife advocacy globally, we regrouped for the third annual Nordic Night Mayor Summit on September 11-12th 2018 in partnership with Gather Festival in Stockholm.

Night tour Stockholm

The panels and workshops tackled issues relating to grassroots empowerment, alliance building, and sustainable music tourism while continuing to establish a shared set of best practices for our industry.

Talks were held by: Amy Lamé / London Night Czsar London, Lutz Leichsenring / Berlin Clubcommission, Ernst Mertens / De School, Angela Verkuijlen (Night Mayor Nijmegen), Alan Miller / Night Time Industry Association, Daniel G. Német (Night Mayor Budapest), Oded Peled / Club Promoter, Helsinki, Jan Naslund / JBN Sound Solutions, Shamiro van der Geld / Amsterdam Night Mayor, Linnéa Elisabeth Svensson / Sustainability Expert and Johanna Beckman / Creative Director, Trädgården

Jan Naslund / JBN Sound Solutions,

8. Delhi, India 15.09.2018

30Under30 Workshop INCA India

VibeLab teamed up with INCA India and Homegrown for a collaborative project titled “30under30” TalentCamp.

30under30 was a day-long forum and roundtable workshop which brought together stakeholders from India’s music and nightlife scene to build a dialogue about the future of nightlife culture in the city.

The participants involved worked on 3 different topics.

Access to decision-makers and framework conditions
Awareness, education and community building
Protecting creative space, operating a cultural public or private venue

You can read more about the program in the Indian Express. The event was a great success and a follow-up event is due to take place in 2019 in Goa.

9. Amsterdam, Netherlands 16 to 17.09.2018

Delegation Trip Amsterdam Dance Event

VibeLab hosted global representatives from city governments and the nightlife sector. Discussing the social-cultural and economic impact on nightlife, delegates came from New York, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Seoul and Amsterdam. The roundtable included working sessions with urban change makers on issues such as crowd management, female empowerment and public health.

10. Vilnius, Lithuania 22 to 25.09.2018

Stakeholder Roundtables In partnership with Sound Diplomacy.

Sound Diplomacy involved VibeLab to help Vilnius city to build a solid and thorough knowledge base, which will serve as a basis for implementing informed and strategic management of its night economy.

11. Berlin, Germany 10.11.2018

Freitraum conference is a yearly event that takes place in Berlin and engages with international perspectives on nightlife culture and city development. The main focus is to recognise the problems and difficulties in the city, offering space from critical reflection and intimate discussions of current situations that are defining urban movements around the world.

This year Lutz took part in a panel including London Night Czar Amy Lamé, Author of The Urban Commons Cookbook Dr Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse, Ella Overkleeft from the Night Mayor foundation Amsterdam, and Jakob Turtur from Johnny Knuppel Berlin. Discussing the overriding problem of gentrification vs grassroots culture and whether non-commercial, self-actualised cultural projects and amplified explorations can still exist in Berlin?

12. Sydney/Australia, 12./13.11.2018

Global Cities After Dark Panel.

Global Cities After Dark was a one-day forum that we held Sydney, as part of the Electronic Music Conference . Following the controversial laws that were bought into effect in 2014, Sydney’s nightlife came to a standstill. The conference shined a light on the importance of night-time culture and economy. The key takeaways from the gathering with 35 speakers and 6 expert sessions, emphasised the need “for Sydney to reclaim the narrative of their city and to focus on creating diverse offerings for their nightlife.”

Read more about it in an article from the music network as well as Australia’s Daily Mail.

13) Bogota, Columbia 22.11.2018

Lutz presented at the first ever Nocturnal Cities event in Bogota as part of the Music Cities Events series from Sound Diplomacy

Lutz presentation focused on our sister project Creative Footprint. A non-profit index that measures and indexes live music space. Working alongside local experts and teams of researchers the Creative Footprint team gathers data about the venues in a city and analyses the health of its music scene.

Meeting with the Secretaria de Cultura of Bogota

14) Melbourne, 20.11.2018

MMW: Victorian Night Time Economy Summit

The summit, hosted by Creative Victoria, Music Victoria, the Municipal Association of Victoria & Melbourne Music Week was held in Melbourne last month to discuss strengthening and rebuilding after-hours economies. Mirik was speaking at the event, and also appeared on Sky News talking about nightlife and cultural vibrancy.

Mirik Milan: “It’s really important when we focus on the night-time economy that we focus on safety, but also a vibrant economy.”

15. London, UK 06.12.2018

Mirk Milan winner of the NTIA/ Red Bull: Ambassador of The Night Award due to his international recognition his dynamic approach to a sustainable Night Time Economy!

The association honoured key figures for their contributions towards developing and protecting Britain’s £70bn night-time economy.

To bring a close to the year, Watch the video with Mirik’s response to receiving the award, whilst at the iconic Georgian nightclub Bassiani in Tbilisi.

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By VibeLab: Lutz Leichsenring & Mirik Milan

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