€10m Budget for Luxembourg Urban Garden, LUGA 2023 Initiative Launched

The first major national horticultural exhibition in Luxembourg-city, "Luxembourg Urban Garden" (LUGA 2023) was launched on Saturday 16 November by Luxembourg's Minister for Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development, Romain Schneider, and alderman of the Ville de Luxembourg, Serge Wilmes, responsible for parks, green spaces and public plantations, who presented the initiative's new visual identity, based on typography and vegetal illustrations, as well as the official website (www.luga2023.lu) on which the concept and scale of LUGA 2023 are explained in detail.

The participative creative process has been started in style with a hundred participants in the first workshop bringing many ideas to the table.

A few months following the initial presentation of the general concept of LUGA 2023, Minister Schneider and Alderman Serge Wilmes also announced on Saturday various opportunities and the organisational framework of Luxembourg's first major national horticultural exhibition which will take place from May to October 2023 in Luxembourg city.

Minister Schneider recalled that the LUGA 2023 will be much more than a purely aesthetic horticultural exhibition. It will be a magnificent showcase to present green heritage and horticultural, market gardening, agricultural and viticultural know-how to 500,000 potential visitors. Innovative horticulture, modern and without the use of phytosanitary products as well as the promotion of local and seasonal food, are societal issues in the air of time that will redraw the image of contemporary agriculture. "I am also pleased to see that many interested parties and potential partners are here today for a first exchange of ideas. It is important for me to unite the sector around this participative project."

"The Ville de Luxembourg is pleased to welcome on its territory the first major horticultural exhibition in the country" explained Serge Wilmes. During his speech, he recalled that the city of Luxembourg, once promoted as the "green heart of Europe", remains faithful to this reputation with more than half of its territory occupied by forests and green spaces. It is in the middle of the city that greenery and gardening, in many new forms, are experiencing a real renaissance and contribute to a considerable improvement in the quality of life, offering places to relax and meet, ensuring a pleasant urban climate, by allowing citizens to produce their own food or by being at the origin of a surprising biodiversity which is besides more and more sought after by beekeepers. "The investments made in the framework of the LUGA and the programme to be proposed in 2023 will thus not only strengthen the tourist and cultural influence of the capital and the country, but will certainly be at the origin of a new sensitivity for the protection of the environment in urban areas" concluded Serge Wilmes.

The horticultural exhibition will take place in four main areas of the capital: the Pétrusse valley, the municipal park and the Pescatore park, the Alzette valley with the districts of Pfaffenthal, Grund and Clausen, and the Kirchberg plateau. On each site, four major themes will be developed: "pure nature", "nature and social", "nature and culture" and "nature and urban development".

One hundred participants present at the creative workshops

The morning workshop was followed by the presentation of the detailed concept of LUGA 2023 by its president, Mrs. Christiane Mangen, and the vice-president of the association, Pierre Schmitt, in addition to moderation of creative workshops.

The circa 100 workshop participants had come from associations, local interest unions and professional organisations in the agricultural field, as well as the environment and tourism sector actors, cultural institutions and public administrations. During the workshop, all participants were invited to express their ideas and wishes in order to enrich the concept of LUGA 2023 with concrete proposals.

The result of this first collection of ideas will be analysed and shared with the participants during a second event to be organised in the spring of 2020. Depending on the wealth of proposals submitted and ideas retained by then, calls for concrete projects will be initiated.

For details, see www.luga2023.lu to get information and submit ideas, and even submit details of a concrete project.

In parallel with the organisation of this first creative morning, the LUGA 2023 non-profit organization is inviting the general public to submit ideas, possibly concrete projects, using an online form. On the website, members of the public as well as professionals can also subscribe to the newsletters to remain informed of the progress of the preparations, the collection of ideas and future calls for projects or to volunteer to become ambassador or sponsor. The organisers have also recalled that this first call for ideas is necessary as the first plantation projects must be developed in 2021 so that they have time to develop until the spring of 2023. The criteria and stages of project selection are now published on www.luga2023.lu.

The "Luxembourg Urban Garden" (LUGA 2023) is organised by Luxembourg's Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development and the Ville de Luxembourg, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Culture, the Inspectorate Générale des Finances and the Luxembourg Horticultural Federation. Its budget amounts to €10 million and is shared equally between the Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development and the Ville de Luxembourg.