It’s worth a hell of a lot. Capsule, organisers of the fantastic Supersonic Festival rather tellingly say their ‘success has happened in spite of the city rather than because of it’. Their suggestions to make Digbeth blossom as a cultural quarter are:
- Why do people get on planes and trains to come to Supersonic – because we offer them a totally unique experience of the highest quality. There is a real opportunity to acknowledge what makes Birmingham a unique city and invest in independent and niche activity. Steer clear of a homogenised approach – learn from those that do it well and have a track record.
- Lets learn from other cities like Berlin, Glasgow and Manchester and take risks with our empty buildings – an opportunity to invest in content to be housed in these empty spaces to animate the area, lets not be so precious i.e. noise restrictions – creativity is often loud and messy lets embrace and celebrate this.
- Encourage more creative companies to have the opportunity to be able to buy their own buildings rather than be tied to short-term leases.
- Create flexible spaces that can house a variety of activity which changes from week to week, this will keep the area vibrant.
- Don’t just invest in a couple of landlords this creates a monopoly.
- Lets get the basics right – look at infrastructure: cash points, post offices, signage, and streetlights.
- Think about the visitors experience as well as what its like to work in this area, lets make it the highest quality experience – currently feels like quite an intimidating, unfriendly area.
- Creative quarters need to grow organically, invest in supporting growth rather than imposing structured ideas of what you think creativity should be.
- Remember areas develop over time not over night.
