About the Creative City: 
Bogota is a creative city renowned for its rich music scene. In recent decades, the city has undergone several urban, economic, social and cultural transformations that have been supported by public policies including culture as a main pillar. Music has been a notable part of this process, as illustrated by the “Festivales Al Parque” program launched in 1995, which offers free, open-air concerts by local rock, jazz, salsa, hip hop, and opera artists. Welcoming more than 600,000 participants every year, these festivals contribute to the appropriation of public spaces by citizens and reinforce Bogota’s identity and cultural diversity. 
 
In addition to hosting the “Festivales Al Parque”, Bogota is also home to 60 other annual music festivals as well as 500 live music venues. Thanks to this vibrant music scene, Bogota has become an important regional musical center where the sounds of salsa, fusion, rock, opera, classic, chamber, electronic, pop, tropical, ranchera, hip hop, experimental, bolero, gospel and Colombia’s own rich musical traditions can be heard. 
 
Bogota’s cultural industries as a whole have improved with the participation of the private sector and the city’s Chamber of Commerce. Other creative fields such as books, the arts, the performing arts and the audiovisual arts have become more developed. The Bogota Music Market, created in 2012, has also become a notable platform for local and regional music agents. Additionally, the Chamber of Commerce is developing a Music Cluster in order to strengthen the city’s dynamic music sector. 
 
Bogota’s local government has a clear social focus and strives to ensure citizen’s rights and wellbeing. Notably, over the past two years the municipality has developed a project to include music and the arts as part of the basic public education programs, providing music education to 23,000 children and young people in the city’s public schools.
 
Added Value: 
As a Creative City of Music, Bogota envisages:
  • sharing experiences on the positive impact of music in education, public policy and community participation in order to tackle social, ethnic and economic inequalities; 
  • designing and executing joint research projects on the economic and social impacts of music, and its contribution to the city’s human development;
  • hosting major cultural events and international conferences such as the International Society of the Performing Arts (2014), the United Cities and Local Governments Summit (2016) and the Market of Cultural Industries from the South, MICSUR (2016), which will include the member cities of the UCCN as special guests; 
  • promoting the mobility of artists, students and researchers in Latin America and the Caribbean, thanks to the city’s position as a geographical and cultural hub in the Americas; and
  • promoting contact between music sector agents in the member cities of the UCCN through exchanges, residency programs and virtual platforms. 
 
Member since: 
2012
Contact: 
María Claudia López, Secretary of Culture, Recreation and Sports, maria.lopez@scrd.gov.co
Membership Monitoring Reports: