ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that staging official events can have positive effects on urban public spaces. Eventalisation is a process which is usually associated with informal, spontaneous or underground events. The eventalisation of urban public space involves two dimensions: the co-production of public spaces in areas not usually regarded as public spaces; and making conceived public spaces more public by loosening and animating them. Events can help to loosen some spaces, so that they seem more accessible: physically, socially and symbolically. The need to animate public spaces is one of the most prevalent ideas within the urban design literature. Most of the literature on animating public spaces discusses ways to bring social activity to existing spaces. Festival and events staged in street settings provide some of the best examples of urban public spaces produced by events. The street festival is perhaps the clearest case where events transform urban space into urban public space.
