This is Not a Gateway Festival October 23, 2008

Participate in a free three-day festival investigating cities ‘from the ground up’. Discussions, films, workshops and exhibitions all by emerging urbanists...

"A very warm welcome to the inaugural This Is Not A Gateway Festival. This is the fi rst festival of its kind. Over three days people from across Europe who are compelled by urban questions will participate in over forty activities. The festival is organised in the best DIY style by emerging practioners from the many disciplines that shape our cities.

2008 is the European Year of Inter-Cultural Dialogue and we
would like to take this opportunity to make a special welcome to visitors, colleagues, and friends from across Europe that have found their way to Café Oto in Dalston, east London.

We formally established This Is Not A Gateway in late 2007 with the aim of addressing the urgent and identified needs confronting current and future cities – namely the need to generate and elevate knowledge about cities from ‘the ground up’, from emerging
practitioners and those often outside of ‘urban circuits’. It was clear that an inter-disciplinary approach was needed - one that encouraged and supported complexity. It was also important to create fi nancially as well as culturally accessible arenas. Our voluntary not-for-profit organisation does this via four main areas of production:

i) bi-monthly salons that unpick complex urban questions with multi-disciplinary participants

ii) the development of an online library and archive of work produced by emerging urbanists

iii) an annual festival (this one!)

iv) publications, which includes the festival book. The festival book will document all that happens at the festival and will then inform the 2009 focus for TINAG.

The inaugural festival has been produced entirely by volunteer hours and with a micro-budget. There has been no curatorial narrative or over-arching theme applied, which means the programme may not make immediate sense. A festivalgoer has the opportunity to approach the three day event as an investigator and participant, getting involved in the workshops, contributing to the discussions, writing essays for the festival book, hosting billets from across Europe and thinking about what they might want to do in the next festival."

Official Website: http://www.thisisnotagateway.net/