URBACT POSTCARDS! During summer, cities from the four corners of Europe will share with us their summer activities. the city of Obidos in Portugal...

"Front row seats for creative talents in Obidos
Lead partner of the URBACT Project “Creative clusters in low density urban areas”, Obidos reserves a place of honor for creative talents: all throughout the year, festivals allow them to meet their public. The Portuguese city, which is benefitting from important tourist flows, goes even further with the creative clusters. Jose Parreira, Mayor’s cabinet adviser, tells us about his city. Welcome to Obidos! Situated on the Portuguese west coast, our city is located around 80 kilometers to the North of Lisbon. Connected by the principal highway axes and 45 minutes from Portugal’s main airport, you could say that Obidos is a naturally evident tourist destination! On your arrival, you’ll discover the historic centre, its old castle (one of the best preserved in the country!), its narrow cobble stone streets and its numerous bars where you can taste the traditional ginjinha de Obidos¹.   The interesting festival programme that we have developed brings, each year, hundreds of thousands of tourists pressing between our walls. One example with the International Piano Master classes: this event, which we organize every year in July and this for the last 13 consecutive years in partnership with a local association, welcomes worldwide distinguished pianists and young artists from around the world to come and learn from their elders. This festival calendar echoes our ambition to encourage artists to settle in Obidos: it is our wish to make of our city a place of true creativity. For this reason we decided to participate, as lead partner, in the URBACT project “Creative clusters in low density urban areas”. At this moment, we are in the final phase of a very ambitious creative economy cluster project. Its objective? To improve existing cooperation between public agents and civil society, both at local and regional level. Besides the inauguration of a Technology Park, an “Arts incubator” will be created, enabling young artists to develop their activity with the necessary logistical support. We also need to create these competitiveness clusters in order to counteract the exodus of the “creative talents” towards the big cities and the metropolitan areas. Important investments are received in the tourism sector and at the same time, the municipality has developed partnerships with new tourist resorts, asking them to participate in our different artistic events. The European Union? We have benefitted in recent years from a series of funds. In particular, in the building of infrastructures and the restoration of old buildings. Furthermore, “knowledge” has been one of the principal strategies of the latest Community Finance Programme. We have received important funding for the undertaking of an extensive study on Obidos: the “Network of Investigation and Knowledge”. This project has brought together 20 research teams and its outcomes will soon be presented to the public. We would also like to thank the European Union for its support in the sector of Education, a priority for our City council. However, we remain aware of the fact that we still have a long way to go. (¹) Typical drink of the city of Obidos, a type of cherry liquor. Read more:

• 'Creative Cluster' Thematic Network
• Obidos website
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