Lendava's candidacy for European Culture Capital "daring"
Culture Minister Tone Peršak said the small town's candidacy would be daring and provoking, as it would promote decentralisation.
The conference entitled The European Capital of Culture - An Opportunity for Youths is the first such conference before Slovenian towns begin vying for the title in 2019.
Peršak said Lendava's candidacy for the title would be "quite daring, but also very provoking for Slovenia and the EU, as this would bring a new dimension to the concept of the European Capital of Culture". It would offer a chance to decentralise culture and include not only large cities, but also small towns, he said.
Lendava announced its candidacy for the title in April this year, when Mitja Čander, the programme director of the Maribor European Capital of Culture project from 2012, said that the town and its surroundings were "a prototype of a Europe of the future".
The conference was also attended by Lendava Mayor Anton Balažek, who announced that the town would take the candidacy very seriously. He said that Lendava would prepare a strategy for the candidacy by the end of the year based on "what the ordinary people of Europe want".
He added that the region, including the nearby areas across the border in Hungary, Croatia and Austria, was a paradise that needed only a small push to be able to present itself as an interesting part of Europe.
Čander said that Lendava could carry out the project almost ten times cheaper than Maribor, which planned EUR 200 million in investments for the project, if the EU, the country and the municipality joined forces and prepared the accompanying projects on time.
Lendava has already announced that it advocates sustainable development even when it comes to cultural tourism. The town does not wish to vie for the title without partner cities, which is why it plans on connecting with cities in Hungary, Austria and Croatia.
Croatia's Čakovec, Austria's Bad Radkersburg and Hungary's Szentgotthard were said to have been short-listed for the partner city.
The conference was also attended by media experts, youths from the municipality and foreign guests from Hungary's Pecs and Austria's Graz, both previous Culture Capitals, as well as from Croatia's Rijeka, which was selected as the Culture Capital for 2020.