Announcing Fixfest 2022: 30 Sep - 02 Oct, Brussels

Events
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Fixfest is back!

It’s been three years since the global repair community gathered in Berlin for the last international Fixfest. Now we’re delighted to announce that Fixfest is making a return. This time, we’ll meet in Brussels :tada:

On Friday the 30th of September, the focus will be on the Right to Repair, with sessions exploring how policy can make repair easier, cheaper and more accessible. This will be followed by a weekend of more community-focused workshops and sessions, many of which will be suggested and run by attendees.

Tickets are now available and you can request yours here:
Request your ticket

If you’d like to suggest and/or run a session yourself, we’d love to hear from you by the 11th of August! Just hit the button below :+1:
Propose a session

This year’s edition is being organised by The Restart Project in close collaboration with our Belgian partners Repair Together and Repair & Share. We’ll share more details and opportunities to get involved soon. But in the meantime, be sure to save the date and start thinking about travel:

Fixfest 2022

:spiral_calendar: 30 September - 02 October, 2022
:world_map: Brussels, Belgium (we hope to run an online track too)

For those who would like to come but might struggle with the financial commitment, We have an extremely limited number of bursaries available to enable people to travel to Brussels for Fixfest. These are only available in exceptional cases and are primarily for people based outside of Europe. Alternatively, we can provide letters of support to assist with your own funding applications. Please send me a message if you’re interested in learning more about this.

What is Fixfest?

Fixfest is a global gathering for repairers and tinkerers, community organisers, activists, policy-makers, thinkers, and companies who are interested in fixing things. It’s a chance for all of us to meet, share stories, experiences and skills, as well as organise and strengthen our networks.

The first Fixfest was in London in 2017 followed by Berlin in 2019. This third edition will take place in Brussels.

Visit the Fixfest site to learn more and sign up for email updates:

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James - thanks for the update. I plan to come out and photograph the event. I’ll probably book Eurostar soon, likely on 29th Sep, so I have time to organise myself!!
Any advice on places to stay??
Cheers
M

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Sounds good Mark! Great to hear you’re coming :tada:
Booking a Eurostar soon is a good idea - the sooner the cheaper in my experience…

We’re hoping to reserve some accommodation in due course (as we did in Berlin), but we’re not there yet unfortunately. We hope to have more details soon.

In the meantime, if you’d like to explore options yourself, it’s likely that the main Fixfest venue (for Sat & Sun) will be near Bruxelles-Chapelle station (10-15 minutes north east of Gare du Midi/ Brussel-Zuid by foot). So anywhere in that area would be close. For the Friday, the plan is to use a venue in the European district (which is the area surrounding Brussel-Luxemburg station). That’s still tbc though :slight_smile:

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Sounds great. Will any of the sessions/talks be available on here?

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Good question @Adam. We’ve found that organising (good) hybrid events can be pretty tricky, so most of the sessions will just be in-person (and hopefully well documented). But we are hoping to set up a smaller online programme, which we should be able to make available here.

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James et al … one Session that I think would be useful and important is 'How do we engage a wider audience, more of the public and more local authorities?"
If I’m photographing FixFest it might be difficult for me to lead/organise this, but if anyone else suggest something similar I’m happy to help.

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From Italy / Milan: Me. Francesco, and Federico are thinking to come…
We have decommissioned Savino.
:stuck_out_tongue:
(I’m joking, he probably will not have the possibility to come. )
We will need a help to find a cheap and convenient accommodation for that days.
We plan to arrive in the afternoon of the 29th.
Please someone help us!
:slight_smile:

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Nice suggestion, thanks Mark. Definitely agree that this is important and think it would be interesting for lots of folks there. We’ll bear in mind that you might be able to help support someone else to run something along these lines :+1:

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@Sergio, that’s great news! (not about Savino of course :wink: )
Good question about accommodation. We still need to think about this more carefully, so don’t have any concrete suggestions yet.

Maybe @Jonathan_Vigne or @Luc_Deriez have some initial ideas about where people can stay?

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FYI I’ll probably be extending my stay to explore more of Bru(x|ss)el(le)?s, maybe coming the weekend before and going back on Monday, also, this may enable me to get a cheaper Eurostar and spend a bit more on a hotel.

I’ll probably spoil myself and get a single room rather than a bed in a dormitory because I’m getting old and I value my comfort.

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James - any update on recommended places to stay? If not, I’ll probably just book somewhere reasonably local (as I’m lugging photo gear around).
I’ll probably arrive a day earlier or leave late (easier for me to get connections to Eurostar)
Regards
Mark

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I’ve booked my tickets and hotel: I’ll be arriving Weds lunchtime and leaving on Monday morning.
I’m staying in the ibis Styles Brussels Louise on Ave. Louise/Louiza.

I’m going to do some sightseeing and, in particular, Art Nouveau architecture, especially Victor Horta in case anyone’s interested.
Conveniently the Hotel Solvay and the Hotel Max Hallet are on Ave. Louise.

I’ll probably also revisit the Musical Instruments Museum which I can recommend.

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Hostels are not usually expensive and, since transport in Brussels is reasonably cheap, the location doesn’t matter so much.

e.g. https://www.hostelworld.com/findabed.php/ChosenCity.Brussels/ChosenCountry.Belgium

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Thanks. It would be good to get some ideas of best locations, if not a precise property. I do not want to be too far away from events as. I’m bringing camera equipment.
Cheers

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Apologies for the slow response (I’ve been away for a few days).

We’ve put together a list of possible places to stay, which is below. We’re also working on negotiating a small discount somewhere - hopefully more on this in the next few days.

In the meantime, we’ve identified the following places that are mostly very close to the main Fixfest venue:

Hotels

Hostels

Apartments/BnBs

And for reference, the main Fixfest venue (For Saturday and Sunday) will be:

Les Ateliers des Tanneurs
Rue des Tanneurs 58-62 (Reception n°60A)
1000 Brussels, Belgium

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Exciting news everyone… tickets are now live! :tickets: :tada:

You can request yours here:

And for more info about tickets and the programme, catch up with the latest news on the Fixfest site:

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Is it a coincidence that the Brussels Eat Festival is happening on the same days? :rofl: :yum:

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haha, if only our planning skills were that advanced :wink:
A great coincidence though :joy:

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Did anything happen about negotiating a discount?

I’m looking to get everything booked today

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Unfortunately we weren’t really able to negotiate any special rates (it seems like Fixfest is small fry for most hotels, who are used to dealing with bigger, deep-pocketed corporate events).

I’ve updated the FAQs with the latest details on places to stay (we’ve added some new options recently) - hopefully one of those will work :slight_smile:

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