As the editorial board of Dialogi was preparing a thematic issue at the beginning of this summer on the revitalization of historic city centres, in Maribor a revitalization of the historic city centre was under way in practice, as part of the Lent Festival. Residents of Maribor cannot complain of a dearth of cultural events in the city centre in recent times. We have seen how some young artists who work in collectives outside the usual cultural institutions have discovered abandoned corners of the city. However, there are great differences in the quality and design of these events. This is also true of the improvised scenes that unfold throughout the city during the Lent Festival. The programme of street theatre from Ljubljana animates many a square or courtyard, and places art events under the noses of many city residents who would never set foot inside a theatre auditorium. But on the minus side, the numerous tents and advertisements of the festival sponsors immensely disfigure the architectural image of the city. And nobody in the city wants to talk about the problem.

The question remains open as to why this is so and why the Lent Festival does nothing to ensure a better quality selection and more serious programme concept. We will try to arrive at an answer by taking a look at the latest excesses of Lent in the city¹s space: the "Adventure Park with Art Camp", which took over City Park (photographs of this year¹s event can be seen in the "Mirror" (Ogledalo) section of this issue).

The word "park" in its primary meaning refers to a cultivated area with trees and plants, usually in cities, designed especially for strolling. Besides this basic meaning, other types of parks outside the city, such as castle-, national-, landscape-, and monument parks; more recently, amusement parks, theme parks, and so-called urban parks, with areas for recreation, have become popular. Maribor City Park was created (like parks throughout Europe) during the rise of the bourgeoisie in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was landscaped mainly as a so-called English park, i.e. in the style of a natural landscape where residents could refresh their eyes and spirits. The park was expanded and upgraded in quality in the 1980s, during the time of socialism, and at that time also protected by a municipal ordinance as a monument of cultivated nature. However, under neoliberalism this protection has clearly lapsed since the adventure park has been able to invade it.

The name itself exposes the ambition for an amusement or theme park, while the accompanying Art Camp implies a creative workshop in a space similar to a campground. There would be nothing wrong with this if this event had not chosen the City Park as its venue, which is a cultural monument of the Maribor bourgeoisie, and started to change its function into an amusement park, a shopping area, an eatery, and a camp all at the same time. During the festival, people race around in go-carts, buy things at booths and stands, eat and drink in bars under canopies, play and create and watch shows in large, tacky tents festooned with advertisements. The organizers of these events have become heroes in the local media since they offer creative workshops during the summer holidays under the pleasant shade of trees, to children who are otherwise "left to themselves, the television, and the internet". Who would dare protest against a bit of trampled grass and spoiled views in light of this heart-warmingly charitable activity? And who in all this euphoria would observe the telling detail that these creative workshops in all this space are in the minority while most of the park is taken over by advertising campaigns, and of bars and restaurants that have acquired for themselves a lovely summer garden in the park? And who would notice that some activities exist more or less just formally, such as "the reading room in the glade", in which people supposedly read but which in fact proves impossible when someone is banging on drums in the immediate vicinity, or deafening music is blaring from the main stage. The modest offer of reading material is supplied by a few publishing houses and bookshops, meaning they gave it away, since all workshops are free of charge to participants.

But the offerings of the businesses comprising Adventure Park are not free. Naturally, you have to pay for the go-cart rides as well as for the food and drink. And that seems perfectly normal to people brought up in the consumer culture of big shopping malls. If culture were truly the point of the events in the Adventure Park, it would not be necessary to pay to participate in creative workshops. If sponsors were truly socially responsible sponsors, they would provide refreshing drinks to workshop participants free of charge. But in Maribor this does not happen, and we have to ask how is it possible that precisely in this case there was such a cultural misunderstanding that the elements of an amusement park such as those which are usually erected and successfully marketed in degraded outskirts of the city were allowed to invade the old City Park, a cultural monument? Is this a consequence of poverty, low education and low level of culture, the ignorance of graduates of the Pedagogical Faculty joined together in a society which organizes everything, and the interests of small local businesses? The latter, with the help of the Lent Festival and the euphoria created by the local media (which also advertises at the festival) increase their sales volumes and profits. During the time of the festival they acquire new catering facilities in public spaces in the historic city centre. Beginning this year, this is no longer just the oft-criticized promenade along the Drava with tents offering party-style cuisine (a photo reportage will be published in the next issue of Dialogi), now they also have at their disposal the city park!

Because a few years ago the city park was occupied by young people who would spend the night there drinking and being a public nuisance, the organizers of Adventure Park like to emphasize the quality of their events. But noise and drink are common to both; instead of destroyed benches we have destroyed views. The city authorities have succeeded in eliminating spontaneous vandalism from the park, but have allowed a more organized form.

The appeal to ordinary people and popularity of the Lent Festival are what disarms its sharpest critics. In Maribor, protesting against anything that is aimed at the masses has been considered blasphemous since the time of socialism, especially if intellectuals and defenders of elite culture dare to engage in it. However, if insistence on elite culture, given the multiculturalism of diverse social groups, is an outmoded concept, any idolizing of this appeal to the masses is also inappropriate, and above all naïve. Naïve because what lies behind it is the desire for profit. Or in other words: the world of consumption is what shapes the foundations for the Lent Festival. And if we look at it from this point of view, the illogical nature of what is going on becomes clear: for example why the festival litters the city with improvised set-ups such as Hun-like tents plastered with advertisements, and why they are erected without regard for the environment mainly in places where there is a good chance of drawing crowds, or why the programme in addition to high quality events also contains any number of completely misplaced and amateur productions that have no connection whatsoever with culture. And mainly because numerous events – such as those in a shopping mall – are simply a means to entice consumers to spend money on goods and services peddled by local businesses.

Since the purchasing power of the local population is small, businesses try to gain attention in a variety of ways. The organizers of the festival evidently do not think and do not have sufficient power to cultivate their sponsors or locate their advertising and business in such a way as to not harm the environment. On the contrary: the more the festival insists on diversity and resists a more serious concept, the more it cosies up to sponsors. Despite its eighteen years of existence, it is far from reaching maturity. But because it is not organized by a private company, but rather a public agency founded and funded by the municipality, and because it takes place in public areas, the concept and programme of the festival are not least of all a problem of the city¹s cultural policy.

In his proposed vision for the project, the recently appointed programme director for The European Capital of Culture 2012 listed the revitalization of the historic city centre as his top priority. For this reason it will be interesting to see how various interests will be combined in this project: will the ECC events in the city follow the mentality of the Lent Festival, or will they succeed in establishing a new praxis? Only a change in the cultural image of the city and its mentality and identity can be the justified function of the ECC.

Published 2010-09-30