The western city of Nova Gorica and its Italian neighbour Gorizia will host about 400 official events as they merge into the first cross-border European Capital of Culture next year. There will be four highlights, including a Walk for Europe that will bring together cities across Europe.

The first highlight will be the opening spectacle in five squares on both sides of the border on Slovenian Culture Day, 8 February.

Described by the organizers as a music festival and an artistic adventure, the opening event takes its title from David Bowie's 1976 album Station to Station.

Bowie and urban legend

According to an urban legend, Bowie arrived in Nova Gorica on a bus on a winter night in 1975. He apparently passed the entire night walking around, writing down ideas, humming melodies.

Many swear they met him, but no pictures were taken. One year later he released his new album and the saying goes that the experience of that night in the two cities was fundamental to shaping his album.

During the opening ceremony visitors will be able to wander freely or to pick a volunteer guide who will lead them along several possible itineraries connecting five thematic music "stages" managed by local NGOs in collaboration with international curators.

Gastronomy and march of friendship

Three more mass events will follow, the first of which will be the Walk for Europe, running from 1 May to Europe Day on 9 May.

The event will see simultaneous walks in partner cities all over Europe where once difficult crossing of national borders will be turned into art, joined by crossing of the border as a sporting event.

The walk is in remembrance of March of Friendship (Pohod prijateljstva/La marciadell'amicizia), a hike that took place once a year during the 1970s and 1980s, on a Saturday in spring, that allowed the participants from both sides of the border to walk a circular path between the cities without having to show their passports, they just needed a participant's tag.

Foodies will enjoy Tastes without Borders as the region's largest gastronomic festival expands to both sides of the border for the first time between 26 and 28 September.

The fourth highlight will be the closing ceremony between 1 and 5 December when the two cities wrap up the cultural project with light installations and concerts.

Numerous events are already taking place this year as a prelude to the European Capital of Culture.

That will see around 400 events in the official programme and just as many in the accompanying one, Mija Lorbek, head of the institute GO! 2025, told reporters on 22 October.

The first guide to the official programme of events was published this week while details will be presented in Brussels on 26 November.

Lasting legacy

Nova Gorica Mayor Samo Turel expects the project will attract a great number of visitors to the two cities. He noted the project encouraged event organisers to increasingly want to organise various events in Nova Gorica.

One of them will be the finish of the 14th leg of the Giro d'Italia, scheduled for 24 May in Nova Gorica.

He said that the end of the project will also signal a new start, and he is looking forward to the legacy it will leave behind.

Both him and his Gorizia counterpart Rodolfo Ziberna welcomed the new infrastructure, with the latter pointing to new concert venues near the former border crossing of Rožna Dolina/Casa Rossa for about 15,000 visitors and the one near Gorizia airport, which will have a capacity for an audience of more than 50,000 and will be suitable for top global performers.

"We have overcome problems that could not have been solved elsewhere ... we are creating spaces where we will be able to come together in culture and sport in the future," Ziberna said, adding: "We have shown the extraordinary power of community, something that other capitals of culture can only aspire to."