Events in the city: using public spaces as event venues

Cities are staging more events than ever. Within this macro-trend, there is another less acknowledged trend: more events are being staged in public spaces. Some events have always been staged in parks, streets and squares, but in recent years events have been taken out of traditional venues and staged in prominent urban spaces. This is favoured by organisers seeking more memorable and more spectacular events, but also by authorities who want to animate urban space and make it more visible.

This book explains these trends and outlines the implications for public spaces. Events play a positive role in our cities, but turning public spaces into venues is often controversial. Events can denigrate as well as animate city space; they are part of the commercialisation, privatisation and securitisation of public space noted by commentators in recent years. The book focuses on examples from London in particular, but it also covers a range of other cities from the developed world. Events at different scales are addressed and, there is dedicated coverage of sports events and cultural events.

This topical and timely volume provides valuable material for higher level students, researchers and academics from events studies, urban studies and development studies.

Andrew Smith is a Reader in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Westminster. Andrew is an urban geographer who specialises in tourism and events research. His first book Events and Urban Regeneration was published by Routledge in 2012.