Design District Zagreb has finished on a high note yesterday, Sunday, June 19th, as people danced in the rain, sending off the festival that brought Martićeva neighborhood’s creative people and residents together and revive the community they live in. The creative energy of the community was tangible in the four days of the festival, as abandoned spaces were given new purposes, hidden gardens were put in the spotlight and new ones were created for the residents, art was moved to the streets and interactive installations tested the creativity of people who stumbled upon it, exhibitions were set up in the unlikeliest places and workshops made people learn new skills and rethink their surrounding in constructive and new ways.
The workshops may have been the greatest asset of the whole festival, as it gathered urban planners, architects, residents, landscape designers and city officials into small think tanks that dealt with specific issues and their resolutions in the context of the neighborhood. Best (sustainable and implementable) projects and suggestions presented and discussed on those workshops should be executed in the following year, making the community better by making it a part of the changes in it.
There was fun to be had on the festival as well, from secret parties around ateliers and studios, rooftop picnics, DJ sets around cafe shops and bars, bands playing in parks and squares, to all out parties on the streets and passages of the neighborhood.
Maybe the best thing to come out of the festival is the positive energy it radiated with, and a sense of community it generated among all that visited it. We wish to see more of that in all of Zagreb’s neighborhoods.
