Rotterdam World Festival & Event City

Rotterdam has been proclaimed as 2010 IFEA World Festival & Event City. The prize-giving took place at the annual conference of the International Festivals & Events Association at Saint Louis, USA.

Jury report

The jury report praised Rotterdam because of its positive festival climate. The city has a lot of professional organizers with creative minds and a good infrastructure. Besides that, all the services and parties in the city are working well together to make these events possible. Rotterdam won the prize in the category ' 500.000 till 1 million residents '.

This award has been designed to stimulate the worldwide festival and event sector and provides a benchmark for festival cities around the globe. To organize a successful event, a positive collaboration with the local government authorities is vital.

The entries were judged by an international jury with experts from the industry. Besides Rotterdam, Taupo (New-Zealand), Edinburgh (United Kingdom) and Sydney (Australia) also won in other categories.

Prize

"It's fantastic that the expert jury is full of praise about Rotterdam," says Dominic Schrijer, municipal councillor for Work, Social Services and Urban Economy. "This prize is really special because of all the effort that has been put into making Rotterdam a event city with international allure. It's a real impulse for the future."

Johan Moerman, CEO of Rotterdam Festivals, says: "We are very happy with the international recognition for our city's event friendly environment. The citizens of Rotterdam love the festivals, they are regular visitors or they are an enthusiastic volunteer. The value of these festivals is very important, certainly during economically difficult times. The prize really underlines this."

About the IFEA

IFEA stands for International Festivals & Events Association. The Idaho based network organization is the premier association supporting and enabling over 2000 festival & event professionals worldwide. The IFEA's primary focus is identifying and providing access to the professional resources and networks that will,inspire and enable those in our industry to realize their dreams, build community and sustain success through celebration. The network has members from 38 countries and 5 continents.

Rotterdam Festivals, Rotterdam Marketing and Rotterdam Topsport submitted the entry together. Rotterdam Festivals coordinates the event management in Rotterdam and stimulates the cultural participation of the citizens.