Salvador

With a population of 2.9 million inhabitants, Salvador is the third largest city in Brazil. Capital of the State of Bahia, Salvador lives by the rhythm of music and uses it successfully to convey a great sense of social cohesion within a rich multicultural city. Home to the renowned composers Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, Salvador has been the birthplace of many music genres including tropicalismo, axé, bossa nova and samba. It was also in Salvador that the “trio elétrico”; a truck popularly used as a mobile stage for large outdoor music events due to its high power sound system, was created.

In Salvador, public spaces are ideal stages to promote culture, and music in particular. Salvador is best known for its Bahian Carnival, which is the largest parade in the world with 2 million people celebrating throughout 25 kilometres of the city’s streets, avenues and squares for an entire week. It is estimated that this massive event represents over $248 million dollars of financial transactions. As a result, the Bahian Carnival has been responsible for promotingthe local music industry on an international scale, with a significant increase of multilevel partnerships, as well as employment opportunities.

The city, whose creative economy largely relies on the music sector, has placed it at the core of its social and economic development plans. In particular, the Sound Incubator project supports the emergence of music businesses and the promotion of local music bands on the international stage. In the framework of the network Brasil Criativo, setup by the Ministry of Culture, Salvador steps up its efforts through a wide range of capacity building programmes based on creative competences to make creativity a key enabler of inclusive and sustainable urban development.