Zagreb's inaugural Design District festival finished on Sunday - and it was a roaring success.
Design District Zagreb, which took place from Thursday 16 - Sunday 19 June, celebrated the Marticeva area - which has recently become the city's creative quarter. The east central streets were taken over with installations, pop-up displays and cafes, to house a varied programme of talks, workshops and performances.
Visitors turned out in their thousands to peruse over 200 projects. Particularly popular were the Ratkaj Passage - which was transformed into a public living room - and Ikea's Urban Garden, planted on the top of Ibler's Skyscraper. More than 4,000 people came up to the roof to see the garden and the sweeping views over Zagreb.
Children weren't forgotten about either. To their parents' delight, they were thoroughly occupied with a giant net designed by collective Numen/ For Use, set up among the trees in the Park of the 100th Brigade of the Croatian army.
Though the festival was a kind of test run, Ira Payer, the creative director of Design District Zagreb has already confirmed that it'll run again. She said: 'Foreign tourists were happy to see a creative, but credible and authentic image of Zagreb, and in the neighbourhood, residents were happy because the festival ‘fixed up’ some neglected or abandoned areas.'
Marija Gasparovic
"I find it a great success that we were able to, thanks to numerous partners and sponsors, as well as the support of the City of Zagreb and the Zagreb Tourist Board, achieve that all of the workshops, exhibitions and concerts were completely free, and I hope it will stay so in the future."