Colleagues from 13 ECoC cities celebrated with us on the Halftime programme! The recent encounter provided a great opportunity to see the results of the successful infrastructure developments of the past months and to taste the summer cultural bustle of Veszprém and the region. One of the highlights of their stay was the Long Table Picnic, where they shared the typical food and drinks of their countries, making this great community event even more colourful.
As we have written before, the ECoC community is one big Family, following each other’s work and development and helping where they can, some of these connections and active collaborations going back more than 10 years.
It was no different between 16 and 18 June, when well-known, long-standing colleagues came to Veszprém to celebrate the halfway point of the cultural year of Veszprém and the Bakony-Balaton region.
The majority of the foreign ECoC members arrived in the afternoon of the first day for the informal dinner, where the guests were welcomed by the Mayor of Veszprém, GyulaPorga, and then half the group went to see The Czardas Queen at the RátonyiRóbert Operetta Festival, while the others enjoyed the soft melodies of Morcheeba and Chet Faker at the Factory’ard.
The next day, Saturday, we invited the ECoC Family for a sightseeing tour. Part of the group looked at the cultural developments in the Castle Area, while the other group looked at our Street Management Programme and the innovations in the Cultural District. It was a special treat for us to welcome back many colleagues who had visited before, so that they could see the progress that had been made compared to six months ago.
In the afternoon we visited the region where our guests could experience the lavender-scented summer cavalcade in Tihany and take pictures of the beautiful view from the Abbey. Of course, the obligatory highlight of summer at Lake Balaton, swimming, was not missed, to the delight of many of them, as the ECoC Family has only visited us in autumn and winter, so many of them were looking forward to finally taking a dip in the waters of the lake.
Colleagues were treated to a performance of The Kissing Lady at the Petőfi Theatre in the evening, and those who wanted a special cultural treat could enjoy the audiovisual concert KVARK – Symphony of Transience by Szabolcs Marton.
On Sunday, 18 June, we could not miss the participation together with our colleagues from abroad at the Long Table Picnic organised by the ECoC of Veszprém-Balaton 2023, for which many of them were also prepared. Special cheeses and dried fish from Norway, deer and game sausages from Austria, unique drinks from Estonia, special delicacies from Finland – the list goes on. We were delighted that our guests responded so well to the invitation and helped to create a good atmosphere for the rest of the picnic. They sang and danced together to the cither music of our colleague Júlia Bucz and tried to involve the musicians wandering between the tables in the improvised fun.
Finally, after the Picnic, the enthusiastic group visited the Factory’ard Culture Park, which they had got to know over the weekend, where they saw the biggest rock band in Central Europe, CityRocks.
Thank you for joining us and sharing one of the biggest events and experiences of our ECoC programme year – the Halftime. It was great to see many old, familiar ECoC professionals, as well as to meet new colleagues who are just starting the great journey we are halfway through. Thank you for all your support, words of encouragement and advice! We welcome you back!
