Evening Programme Highlights — Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2026

As the festival moves into the evening, the Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2026 opens space for bold conversations, honest reflections and new perspectives on public sector innovation driven by the arts.

Mayors Innovating Democracy Locally
In a panel hosted by STERN and moderated by Martin Debes, local leaders discuss how municipalities are becoming laboratories for democratic innovation. Featuring Jennifer Collin-Feeder and Luca Piwodda, the session explores how pragmatism and participation in finding solutions to real world, pressing problems can be trust in democratic processes at the local level.

Fuckup Session: Stuttgart 21
Major transformation projects rarely succeed without setbacks. In a special “Fuckup Session” edition, Dr.-Ing. Volker Kefer — widely known as “Mr. Stuttgart 21” — offers a candid deep dive into one of Germany’s most debated infrastructure projects. Rather than hiding failure, the session explores the hidden insights, systemic pressures and organisational dynamics behind difficult decisions, delays and public controversy — and what public leaders can learn from them to get major transformations done better.

Creative Bureaucracy Award for Olafur Eliasson
The festival honours Olafur Eliasson for his artistic work that reimagines public space, participation and collective responsibility. Through installations and interventions experienced by millions worldwide, Eliasson challenges societies to rethink how shared spaces are shaped — not as static systems frozen by past decisions, but as living commons that reflect who we believe we are today, and who we want to become together.

Networking and Festival Party
As the festival programme comes to an end, the conversations continue. The evening closes with intensive networking, unexpected encounters and peer-to-peer exchange across administrations, cities, institutions and countries.
Because real public sector innovation does not stop at the stage — it grows through relationships, shared experiences and the courage to learn from one another.

The evening programme combines democratic debate, radical transparency and artistic imagination — bringing together the many dimensions of creative bureaucracy.