The opening ceremony for the European Capital of Culture hosted by the Slovenian border city of Nova Gorica and its Italian counterpart Gorizia will be held on Slovenian Culture Day on 8 February 2025.

The date was announced exactly two years ahead of the opening ceremony by Culture Minister Asta Vrečko at a recital in Ljubljana's Prešeren Square at which actors interpreted poems by France Prešeren.

The date and some other details of the event were also announced at a similar recital in Nova Gorica simultaneously with their counterparts in Gorizia.

Running under the motto From Station to Station, the European Capital of Culture opening ceremony will be held along the way between the Nova Gorica and Gorizia train stations.

The ceremony will take the audience from one station to the other and will serve as a showcase of events that will follow as part of the culture capital project throughout the year.

The opening event will be directed by Neda Rusjan Bric, Gorazd Božič, director of GO!2025, announced in Nova Gorica. In Gorizia the team was unveiled by Mayor Rodolfo Ziberna.

The programme of the 2025 European Capital of Culture will run under the slogan Go! Borderless.

The area by the Nova Gorica train station is to be turned into a cultural district that will be the hub of the culture capital project.

Maribor was Slovenia's first city to host the European Capital of Culture, in 2012.