A mega-event in a small city: community participation, heritage and scale in the case of Pafos 2017 European Capital of Culture

Pafos’s ‘Open Air Factory’ strategy for the 2017 ECoC was a simple yet imaginative concept born out of a strong desire to re-draw the city’s small-town character, diversify its economy, and steer social and cultural development along new paths. In order to counter the city’s limited economic resources and cultural infrastructure, the event’s vision was based on the two assets that Pafos has in abundance: a rich cultural heritage and a community eager for change. This paper tracks the uneven path of community involvement during the ECoC bidding, planning, implementation and post-implementation stages, and looks at urban heritage as the shared field of convergence for the multiple modes and degrees of participation in the realization of a mega-event. The city’s small size allows for original insights into the opportunities and limitations of the intersections between community, heritage and scale in the case of mega-event-based urban regeneration.