This is a CTP of initiative: Shareable‐ShareableAthens (Greece)
This Critical Turning Point (CTP4) regards the organization of a solidarity, sharing and collaborative economy festival in Athens. The first edition of the festival took place in October 2012. Since then there have been 4 editions (October 2013, October 2014, October 2015 and June 2016) As time goes by, and by every new edition, the festival becomes more established, bigger and better organized. The page of the festival on facebook is: https://www.facebook.com/festival4sce/.
The decision to organise the festival consists of a Critical Turning Point as it sprang from the need of several initiatives in Athens to gather all together, exchange ideas with each other and showcase all the aspects of an ecosystem of solidarity, actions and ideas. The groups were all aware that this ecosystem exists, but were scattered and broken down in many small pieces (initiatives). The common decision to try to bring all the initiatives together for a few days, to collaborate on the organization and the implementation of the festival, and to foster the creation of new partnerships and projects was an important moment that led to something “magical and extraordinary, something that does not exist in such an autonomous and self-organised form, in any other country”, as the interviewee of Time Exchange Athens mentioned.
The Solidarity Festival is 100% self-financed and planned on a very low budget, the main financial source of which is the festival’s bar. It is not affiliated to any political party and does not receive financial help from political circles and commercial activities. In addition, it is organised and run based completely on voluntary support.
The duration of the festival is three days, during which many initiatives and networks of collaborative and solidarity economy from all over Greece and also from abroad present their work and network of future projects and collaborations. However, except from the participating networks, the festival is also open to the public -for free. There are many workshops, discussions, activities and projections, as well as live music and performing artists. Overall, the atmosphere at the festival can be described as fresh, human and relaxed.
At a meeting between representatives of many different groups, in spring 2012, the idea of organizing a festival as an event for getting to know the work of each other and network, came out. The same idea had been developing and had been discussed internally by many of the groups, however the one that proposed during this meeting happened to be the Time Exchange Athens network. The idea was perceived very positively, as it was not something new for the other groups as well.
The core organisation team of the festival consists of approximately 15 people, from different initiatives in Athens. Most of these people met during the gatherings at Sintagma square (see CTP 1) and were in contact after the summer of 2011 as well. The majority of the core team are members of the Time Exchange Athens network. This team is the one that is responsible for the planning, preparation and implementation of the festival, along with the people who volunteer for support on practical issues during the preparation and implementation period.
The fact that the festival is entirely based on voluntary support, eventually led to the decision to change the time of implementation from October to June. October was a difficult moment as before that the majority of people were on holidays, or were busy with their work and studies. Therefore, in order to facilitate the participation of as many people as possible in the process, and also to ensure a successful and well-prepared outcome, the date of the festival changed to June that is a much easier and less busy time of the year.
Before the event, besides the support of volunteers, the group asks for help from everyone, even for just promoting the festival to his friends, or through social media. The support and participation of as many people as possible, even by doing something as easy as sharing the event on social media, is what leads to the successful implementation of the festival every year, and makes it bigger and stronger every time.
Although the dependence on voluntary support leads many times to the required work happening at the last moment and can be a stressful factor, it is a well thought decision of ideological and practical origin that makes the festival a collective, meaningful, enjoyable and successful process.
The roots of the festival can be identified back to the gatherings of summer 2011 at Sintagma square, in Athens. However, it was organized and implemented throughout a series of informal and formal meetings that followed later on.
At the gatherings at Sintagma square, the founding members of the Time Exchange Athens met a lot of people who were already members of other networks, or later on created new sharing economy initiatives. Half a year after the gatherings at the square were ended by the police, many of the people who had met there kept on meeting informally in other locations.
After one of the regular informal meetings between members of different teams, where the idea of the festival was born, a formal meeting was organized, in order to specifically discuss the idea of the festival and the details towards its implementation. At this meeting, the groups agreed about the philosophy and basic characteristics of the festival. In addition, at this first “festival meeting” a formal call to other initiatives from Athens, other Greek cities, and also from abroad, was issued, inviting them to participate in the organization and implementation of the festival.
After the interest that was expressed by many different initiatives, and the successful implementation of the first edition of the festival, four new editions followed, on a yearly basis. The event is now established as a yearly, important event for solidarity and sharing initiatives in the country. For five years, the philosophy and ideology of the festival, as well as its basic characteristics, have remained the same. The location of the three first editions was the same, the Cultural Center of Hellenikon, in the south of Athens. However, in 2015 the festival took place at the Platon Academy, a public space at the center of the city.
The outcomes of each edition of the festival, include new projects and collaborations that arise, either between groups that already know each other or with new initiatives that present their work for the first time. Moreover, new groups have been formed during the days of the event. According to the Time Exchange Athens communications representative “The festival is an incubator of new ideas that arise from the enabling environment that it creates”.
The fact that the festival is open to the public, with free entrance, and receives a lot of publicity allows it to have an important informative and educative role. It is open to people who are “curious” to see what a solidarity, sharing and collaborative economy event might be -but most importantly, accessible to everyone who is looking for solutions to specific problems of his everyday life. People who are not familiar with collaborative and sharing economy get a wide overview of tools, initiatives and the work being done. People looking for support on their needs in relation to provision of food, housing, health, learning opportunities, and more, can find initiatives that can support them. In this sense, the goal of the festival, apart from what is achieved on the spot during its implementation, is the social impact it can create after these three days.
The Critical Turning Point involved contestation, as initially there were many members who were doubting that such a big idea could be realized. The reason for this was the variety of the people who had gathered at the first meeting to discuss the idea of the festival, and the differences they had in terms of ideology, way of thinking, etc. In these discussions part of the meeting group was very pessimistic, emphasising that it is impossible to ever achieve something so big and wide like the Solidarity Festival, in a self-organized way. Lack of trust, and the fact that people did not know each other personally, was once again a main reason for this suspiciousness. As a result, the meetings of the team were sometimes difficult, slow and long.
However, the enthusiasm and motivation of the rest of the team was not affected. As things were moving forward, trust developed and it was becoming obvious that the festival is a common goal that can indeed be achieved. Especially later on, when the festival finished and it was clear that it had been extremely successful, these doubts were completely abolished, so during the organization of the next editions contestation was limited to the minimum.
The decision to organize the Solidarity Festival was considered an important decision that motivated people to participate in its implementation, at the moment it happened. It had been anticipated as a big step and an important critical attempt for the solidarity scene of Athens by the members of the Time Exchange Athens who proposed the idea, as well as of the other teams who had already thought about it before but had not proposed it. However, at that moment it was not perceived exactly as a Critical Turning Point as the teams were uncertain about how successful it would be and how it would evolve.
The realization that they were going towards a Critical Turning Point was gradually happening on the way towards the first festival, meeting by meeting. For example, the moments after the first formal meeting that was specifically dedicated to the organization of the festival, or after sending the call for participation to the festival to many initiatives all over Greece and abroad, it was becoming clearer that something big and important could be organized.
At the moment of the implementation and especially after the first edition of the festival was completed, it was clear to all the initiatives involved that this was a major Critical Turning Point in the evolution of the solidarity and sharing economy scene in Greece. The enthusiasm, collaborations, participation and dynamism of the festival was astonishing, and it is still considered one of the best moments (and best decisions) of the last years.
The main challenge for the Time Exchange Athens, as well as for most of the other initiatives, is to ensure the participation of people in their platform and to promote the ideology of solidarity (not “philanthropy”) with practical solutions to basic needs. At the same time all initiatives are aware that they cannot change any established situation, make a significant difference, or respond effectively to urgent situations, by acting individually. As a result, the challenges are considered shared, as well as the problems that the initiatives try to solve.
The overall aim of the festival idea was to create an ecosystem of economy for covering basic needs such as food and energy production, in a convincing way so that people can be persuaded to support solidarity ideas and initiatives in a broader (but also more specific if possible) way. The way in which the festival is trying to achieve this goal, is by showing solutions and inspiring people. This overall mission is presented and analysed at the documents of the festival that are accessible to everyone.
In this sense, the highest value of the solidarity festival is that it manages to indeed “create this ecosystem of different initiatives, networks, ideas and tools that can collectively provide a holistic sustainable solution, or at least a sustainable proposal, to society” as a member of Time Exchange Athens mentioned. Through every edition of festival, an almost autonomous economy is presented, in an improved manner year by year. The good response of the public and the other initiatives towards the festival, motivates the team to work harder towards achieving its goals, especially related to the two aforementioned main challenges.
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