A new type of urban public space usage
The prelude of LibBridge was a spontaneously organized community meeting place – on the bridge closed due to the renovation in the summer of 2016. From 2017, on Valyo’s initiative, the bridge becomes a creative community space for pedestrians and cyclists every summer for four weekends, and it is one of the most popular leisure venues during the dog days in Budapest, full of free, colorful programs.
As a bustling, bottom-up approach city festival, conceptually neglecting the catering business, LibBridge quickly became an iconic event in Budapest, a reference base and a widely known symbol of urban freedom. The event, through its numerous unique programs and their organizers and participants, addresses and involves an extremely wide audience in the use of the new type of urban public space. Its popularity is extraordinary among the city’s residents, visitors, leaders and those thinking about the city’s future.
As the temporary owner of the area, Valyo grants / secures the site and coordinates the programs. Between 2017-19, the Metropolitan Municipality supported the event with a discounted public space usage fee, cleaning and public space supervision. In order to ensure high-quality implementation, we also involved sponsors, and the users of LibBridge helped the event with private donations, in 2019 we also successfully joined the Swimathon fundraising event of the Ferencváros Community Foundation.
In 2019, we involved the city residents already in the preparations and planning phases. In the framework of our LibBridge Meetup series, we brainstormed together about the LibBridge event, and the possibilities of a permanent pedestrian bridge in the topics of urban development, transport – program organization – infrastructure and installation.
The theme of the Hungarian Pavilion of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale was also inspired by the LibBridge phenomenon.
