We have been preparing for 2023 for a year now

Exactly this time last year the result was announced. Veszprém and the Balaton region won the European Capital of Culture title for 2023. Though the majority of the work still only happens in the background, we are pleased to look back at the past year’s work. Our colleagues and the representatives of the cultural institutions of Veszprém has been travelling around Europe to arrange cooperations and gain some experience for 2023.

The team and our partners have been to Dublin, Berlin, Plovdiv, Wroclaw, Krakow, Timisoara, Fiume, Leeuwarden, Brussels, Matera, Milton Keynes, Galway, Marseille and Linz. We also had plenty of foreign teams visiting us. We had the chance to present our city and its historical sights to the Finnish, Polish, Estonian, Japanese and Slovak delegation. Many projects came to life in Veszprém this year. We organised the 1st Civil forum and  the 2nd Design-Week of Veszprém, where street-furnitures were exhibited that were designed by British, Greek, Italian, Spanish and local architects. Our ECoC project got a new visual identity and branding this year. We participated in the Traveling exhibition, Bakony Expo, Füred Gastro, and took our part in the ‘Films on the wall’ project organised by the Agora and supported the ‘Think Freedom’ exhibition. Our ice skating rink is open until February. As we find knowledge-based development very important, we organised over 20 workshops and forums for over 1000 participants and published 11 open calls. We were published in the local and international press over 700 times and our videos had 240.000 views. We are proud to belong to the European Creative Cities and to own the title of City of Music designated by the UNESCO. We also extremely proud that Lovassy László Grammar School won the 1st place on nationwide ranking for the second time. Meanwhile our ECoC team have grown up to 20 people. Our goal is to create a programme which will help create a unity between Veszprém and the Balaton-Bakony region in a way that will enhance a sustainable but vivid cultural life. We have many plans for 2020. At the beginning of the year we keep working with the Municipality of Veszprém to create strong cooperation with the officials of the Bakony-Balaton region. A culture bistro called ‘Papírkutya’ will be opening. We are planning the next Pecha Kucha and the 2nd Civil forum. We can’t wait for the opening our office and we will publish our new homepage too. We are grateful for the support of everyone around the Veszprém-Balaton region, our partners and colleagues for their work.