Municipality of Vidin is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania (Calafat) and is also the administrative center of Vidin Province.
In the area Vidin – Calafat, a lot of cross-border projects were implemented in the last 5 years, having the main aim valorizing, promotion and rediscovering common cultural heritage along the Danube.
NTC-BG identified all these local projects that had feedback among the local community and changed in a better way for a short period their cultural social life. Within DANUrB values: stakeholder network building, knowledge transfer and trust were relevant in the current situation described. All these activities concluded to find a way to bring people closer again to their community.
Local communities in Vidin – Calafat needed to bring stakeholders together at the same place, to share their knowledge and their experience, in that way they are able to form a network, which is built on trust and respect.
NTC-BG & INCDT decided to build their Romanian-Bulgarian stakeholder network in accordance:
- Discussing with the local authorities about what we can do for helping them, present our results and how we can adapt to the regional level.
- Sharing our last experience from the first DANUrB, where the Vidin-Calafat communities were involved and organized together the cross-border Festival “Danube Kids Day” (2019). Mentioned also the results obtained after the joint event, educational representatives from Vidin started to cooperate with Romanian educational representatives in exchange for experience in school projects. They developed common educational materials in order to help the local community to raise awareness of what they have in common.
- NTC BG Guide prepared and planned the whole concept for the “Danube Treasures” Festival and invited local craftsmen and producers from the district of Vidin for the exhibition section, as well as more than 6 Bulgarian folklore groups, incl. the Vidin folklore group – and organized and moderated the whole event. The cluster organization jointly with the Municipality of Vidin (ASP) reactivated the stakeholder’s network and presented a new approach in the cultural initiatives, combining several elements with the main aim: promotion and development of common cultural heritage. Pieces of the Danube Treasures were several thematic sections, which included: adventures (bungee jumps from the Danube bridge, sailing with dragon boats, etc.); craftsmen thematic corners, representing the hand-made production of local artisans; local cuisine and wine tasting; days of open doors at the local museums in Vidin; Bulgarian-Romanian folklore dances, succeed to build a strong bridge for cooperation that attract more visitors to these regions, to establish both social and economic contacts.
Organizing a cross-border festival was an interesting pilot action with the aim to build an involvement community. The implementing action was executed well, all the stakeholders were involved, changed ideas, they created an event in order to offer to the local community a space for humans, a space for communication.
Cultural events create jobs, attract investments and are an essential force in the new economy based on knowledge, building skills and trust.
To organize a cultural event has the main aim to include the activities of the city’s cultural associations around specific objectives, which will be the basis of clearly defined criteria, in total synergy with other policies of the local community: social, educational and tourism.
Festivals also offer an opportunity for development not only on a community level, but also on an individual level. A person’s sense of belonging to a community also happens through an invisible phenomenon. The complex relationships within a festival offer individual members the exchange of information and energy, as well as opportunities to connect to a world larger than that of the community in which they live.
Festivals are the best way to gain a new audience and to mark a continuous formation and development of the community, from a cultural and aesthetic point of view.
Organizing a festival also represents the development of partnership systems, creating new infrastructures, (re)valuing non-conventional spaces (factories, trams, parks), structuring new projects at each edition and collaborating on a national and international level.
When an event is organized around the festival, the authorities and the local community realize not only their contribution from the point of view of individual training and community development in cultural, educational and social terms, but also the opportunity to bear fruit at maximum local and regional cultural tourism, which in turn attracts investors, infrastructure modernization, new jobs, etc.
Lesson learned:
We learned that together, we can tackle almost anything:
- cooperating across borders,
- continuing the practical, hands-on transnational cooperation across the border,
- identifying common solutions and share good practices,
- generating understanding on each other’s governance and administrative systems, objectives and challenges,
- involving more dimensions and knowledge,
- encouraging international and intercultural knowledge exchange and bringing diverse perspectives and knowledge into the problem-solving process,
- having an involved presentation in what you believe, and critical thinking to pool expertise and ideas to collectively think about how to solve the problem.
Local communities from Bulgaria were asking to have such an event next year in other Danube towns. NTC BG Guide plans to organize the “Danube Treasures” Festival in another Danube town in 2023 and continuing to make this an annual experience!
