How a Former Textile Designer Built Istanbul's Most Ambitious Summer Festival From Scratch

When Aylin Çetin first proposed a month-long summer festival anchored in Karakoy's warehouses and Galata's narrow streets, the municipal officials across her desk were polite but unmoved. It was 2015, and the neighbourhood was still finding its footing as a cultural hub. Today, the Bosphorus Culture Days—now in its eleventh iteration—draws over 120,000 visitors annually and has become a blueprint for grassroots cultural programming across Turkey's major cities.

Çetin, a former textile designer who spent fifteen years working with established fashion houses in Nişantaşı before stepping away, spent two years researching what Istanbul's fragmented arts communities actually wanted. She conducted interviews in artist collectives scattered across Balat, Beyoğlu, and Şişli, visited independent theatres in Cihangir, and attended underground music nights in Dolapdere. "I realised nobody was connecting these dots," she recalls in conversation. "Everyone was creating in isolation."

The first edition, held across just three venues with a €40,000 budget, featured 47 artists and 31 cultural organisations. Çetin recruited volunteers—many still involved today—and leveraged relationships built during her design career to secure in-kind contributions. A printing house in Eyüp donated flyers. A gallery owner in Galatasaray provided workspace. Within five years, the festival had expanded to 23 venues, stretching from Antrepo No. 3 in Karakoy to smaller performance spaces tucked behind the Galata Tower.

What distinguishes the festival from Istanbul's crowded summer calendar—which includes the Istanbul Jazz Festival (established 1994) and the more commercially-oriented Istanbul Design Biennial—is its deliberate focus on emerging voices. The 2026 programme allocates 60% of programming slots to artists presenting their work publicly for the first time. Entry fees for participating organisations hover around 800–2,000 Turkish lira, keeping barriers intentionally low.

The infrastructure supporting this vision extends beyond June and July programming. Çetin founded the Istanbul Creative Commons Association in 2019, a non-profit that now provides year-round mentorship, workspace access, and grant-writing support to independent artists. Last year, the organisation distributed 2.3 million lira in micro-grants across 89 cultural projects.

As global festivals increasingly replicate corporate models, Çetin's quiet insistence on community ownership feels almost radical. She remains involved in every curatorial decision, rejecting sponsorships that don't align with the festival's ethos, and continues working part-time as a textile consultant—pragmatism born from her design background. The 2026 edition opens July 4th across Karakoy, Beyoğlu, and Balat, featuring 156 events across 31 venues.

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