Maribor, 14 December (STA) – A number of events are scheduled this weekend as the 2012 European Capital of Culture comes to a close in Slovenia’s second-largest city, which will hand over the title to France’s Marseilles and Slovakia’s Košice at a special ceremony on Saturday.
Until the end of the week, the city will host various concerts, literary events, a fashion show, a chess tournament as well as workshops, projections and exhibitions.
The highlights include a premiere screening of a documentary film on Slovenian writer Drago Jančar on Friday and a number of musical performances on the stages scattered across Maribor.
The special handover ceremony will be held on Saturday under the baton of Matej Filipčič, the man behind the opening ceremony in January.
Suzana Žilič Fišer, the head of Institute Maribor 2012, the main organiser of the event, stressed that the ceremony would be open to the public, as the organisers wanted to conclude the year-long project with a thank-you to the citizens and everybody who helped along the way.
Despite the official closing ceremony, exhibitions and several other events will be held as part of the culture capital project until the end of the year.
Portugal’s Guimaraes, which held the title alongside Maribor, will hold the closing ceremony on 21 December.