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Leeds in Barcelona 2011

Leeds takes on Barcelona for a creative encounter!
A collective of Leeds’ creative talent headed to Barcelona this May as Marketing Leeds returned to the Spanish city to promote Leeds’ emerging creative economy and further strengthen the ties between the two cities.
 
Following on from the success of the original ‘Leeds in Barcelona’ event in 2010, Marketing Leeds worked with Leeds based company Hebe Media and one of Spain’s most influential fashion websites, LeLook, on ‘Leeds in Barcelona - a creative encounter’ which took place from 20th – 22nd May.
 
The Leeds collective included fashion designers, musicians and key influencers from the creative sector whose work will be used to showcase the city.  An audience of over 900 opinion formers from Barcelona were treated to a snapshot of Leeds through a number of fashion events and performances.
 
The innovative ‘showcase’ event highlighted to those in Barcelona, one of the World’s most renowned creative cities, that Leeds is the ‘one to watch’ in the future.

The story so far...

115 delegates departed from Leeds to join Leeds in Barcelona, a three-day festival of commerce and culture. The aim of the festival was to increase the profile of Leeds in Barcelona and wider Catalonia and to forge long term business trade links between the two cities so as to contribute to the continued economic prosperity for both cities.

A series of  30 events took place across the three days, including seminars, conferences and networking events, culminating in a one-off bespoke performance by Northern Ballet, Opera North and Phoenix Dance Theatre in the presence of the British Ambassador to Spain attended by key local civic and business leaders from Barcelona and wider Catalonia. Read more...

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    The Collective

    The team travelling to Barcelona to showcase the city includes:

    BacktoBasics

    Backtobascis is a Leeds nightlife institution of legendary status and the UK’s longest running weekly club night.  Formed in 1991 by Dave Beer and Alistair Cooke, the club has always prided itself on setting new standards and pioneering the best music of the time.  ‘Basics’ is a magnet for like-minded people, drawn by the combination of its rock and roll ethos, passion for music and refusal to sell out.  Over the years the club has been responsible for the debut UK appearances of the likes of Daft Punk, Danny Tenaglia, Frankie Knuckles and Derrick Carter, to name only a few. 

    In 2011 the club celebrates 20 years of glamour and excess and continues to lead the way, showcasing the best artists in the world and holding its position as the King of global club royalty.

    Nicholas Deakins

    We are delighted to have British fashion brand Nicholas Deakins on board for the Leeds in Barcelona project. The brand will this year celebrate it's 20th anniversary and the story behind the success is a remarkable one. Their first designs in 1991 sold out in 1 week (500 footwear pieces) and the brand has gone from strength to strength ever since. "They say that you shouldn’t design for yourself,” says founder Craig Nicholas Tate. “But with that first boot we absolutely did. At that time we were all clubbers, going backwards and forwards between Back to Basics in Leeds and the Hacienda in Manchester, and at the time you couldn’t get into those clubs in trainers. It really was a case of the right thing at the right time.”

    Deakins' is now stocked all over the world and the breadth of their collection grows every season. We will be featuring items from their 'Nicholas Deakins' 'Nicholas Tate' and Nicholas Deakins Clothing' collections.

    Dom, Dick and Harry

    The Northern “sex, drugs and rock & roll’ fashion label based in Leeds.  Featured in national press as up and coming designers to watch, and highly commended as runner up for best local designer at the Leeds Retail Awards in October 2010.  The brand’s style was generated much enthusiasm at the first Leeds in Barcelona event appealing to many of the fashion bloggers who joined us in Leeds.

    James Steward

    James is widely regarded as Leeds number one couture fashion designer.  In the past James’ creations have been seen on Victoria Beckham and Kylie Minogue.  James learned his trade at Gattinoni Couture in Milan and has since created pieces for television, magazines and massive retailers such as Asos.  James took part in Marketing Leeds’ recent Leeds in Vancouver event becoming the first-ever British designer to show at Vancouver Fashion Week and his collection was the talk of the show.

    ICS

    ICS are an exciting new Leeds band who are pushing musical boundaries having created their own unique take on the dub/punk sound.  They have had much early success, including; Airplay and interviews on BBC Radio 1 by Both Nick Grimshaw and Steve Lamacq.  Nelly’s ‘ride with me’, a cover the band would do during their set went viral after prolific blogger ‘Perez Hilton’ posted a cover the boys did for the BBC on his infamous blog. The band carried reached the coveted number 1 slot on the Hype Machine as being the most blogged music in the world that week.

    More recently ICS have been featured on the line up of such festivals as Creamfields, Snowbombing and shared the bill with acts such as Foals, Friendly Fires and Calvin Harris.

    Imran Ali

    Imran is a founding partner of Carbon Imagineering, an emerging technologies think tank based in the UK, New Zealand and the US. Carbon shares its expertise with various clients, media outlets, as well as via its own events and conferences.

    Previously, Imran has been a Deputy Director of Technology Research for Orange UK, part of the advisory boards of O’Reilly’s ETel conference, mobile startup Treasuremytext and the eComm conference, as well as serving on the boards of startups ensembli and bmedi@. Recently, Imran was appointed as conference director of the FutureEverything festival, following three successful years as founder of the LSx festival of technology.

    You can follow Imran on Twitter as @imran, and find his various online profiles at imranali.name.

    Matt Maude

    Founder of Left Eye Blind Productions, film director and screenwriter Matt Maude is one of the UK’s rising stars in film directing (he is one of Screen Yorkshire’s / UK Film Council ‘Super 8’). Creating chart topping music videos, award winning short films,  documentaries and feature films, Matt and his production company Left Eye Blind have a long history in running community projects targeted at building a film and music network across Leeds and beyond.