Travelling on music notes - the popularize of natural heritage and resources and cultural heritage of the cross-border region

The Vidin-Oltenia cross-border region has a rich history, valuable heritage and diverse culture that complement the European cultural landscape. The historical sites, the urban model of the historical centres of the cities on the Danube, the tangible and intangible cultural heritage form the basis for the development of a modern tourist infrastructure. In recent years a number of measures have been taken to increase the tourist attractiveness of the cross-border region and a variety of attractive products have been created, including such in the field of cultural tourism. However, they are mainly based on the intangible cultural heritage of the region and on the preserved rich and authentic folklore. Outside of focus have remained the contemporary cultural institutes and creative industries, which create quality products and also have enormous potential to participate in the process of turning the region into a desirable and popular tourist destination. The development of music tourism, as a type of specialized tourism, is not among the topics which the cross-border region has been actively working on. The existing resources and the opportunities for using them have not been evaluated. The partnership between Sinfonietta Vidin and Philharmonic - Craiova aims to change this situation. The main objective of the project is to increase the tourist attractiveness of the Vidin-Oltenia cross-border region and to promote the local natural beauty and cultural values by using the modern creative industries and creating an innovative cultural event. Under the project will be developed a Joint Strategy to promote music culture and the development of music tourism in the cross-border region. Accentuating the modern creative industries will help attract another group of potential tourists that has not been covered so far. Created will be a unique formation of Bulgarian and Romanian musicians, who will develop a joint concert programme. A music festival will be organized, with a part of the programme presented in the town of Vidin and the other part in the town of Craiova. The festival programme will be specified by the Art Boards of the two orchestras. Innovation and attractiveness will be sought not only through the possibilities of combining the musicians from the two orchestras, but also through the presentation of the concert programme outside the traditional places to ensure an unforgettable experience for the audience. A key point in the current project is the promotion of the unique natural beauty and cultural values of the cross-border region in an innovative way. The creation of a "Musical Guide" will promote both the music festival as a cultural event and the whole cross-border region as a place of unique natural features and cultural and historical heritage. The videos, included in the guidebook, will make the unique system of natural, historical and cultural values of the cross-border region "come to life" and attract attention. Under the project, Philharmonic - Craiova and Sinfonietta - Vidin will act in cooperation for the first time. These two cultural institutes have a rich history, an extremely high reputation, and play a key role in the implementation of cultural policies in their regions but have not worked as partners, yet. Their musicians are proven professionals, willing to apply innovative approaches in their creative activities. They will combine efforts to create a new, qualitative and attractive cultural product that will be of interest not only to the local communities but will also contribute to increase the tourism-development potential of the region. The implementation of the project will result in the creation of a G5unique cultural and tourist product that the orchestras on both sides could not create on their own. By uniting the potential of two of the largest cultural institutes and forming a joint tourism product and promotional policy, the project will significantly contribution to the sustainable development of tourism in the cross-border region. The project is relative to Priority Axis 2 - A Green Region; Specific Objective 2.1. - To improve the sustainable use of natural heritage and resources and cultural heritage, and will contribute to both Programme Product Indicators. Two major products will be created: an innovative cultural event - a “Music Festival”, and a “Musical Guide”, promoting the natural resources and the unique cultural heritage of the cross-border region. A strategic document will be developed - A Joint Strategy to promote music culture and the development of music tourism in the cross-border region. All activities, planned under the project, will be implemented on the territory of the cross-border region. They will be widely promoted and we expect that the minimum increase of overnight stays for the period of the project to be 600.The created festival will be a sustainable cultural event, which will become a part of the cultural calendars in district Vidin and district Oltenia, and in this connection we expect to contribute for the performance of the indicator on the Programme and after the completion of the project. The indicative budget of the project is 198 000.00 €, with direct costs being planned for: the purchase of sound and lighting equipment, necessary for the quality performance of the musical event; shooting and distribution of the "Musical Guide"; promotion of the cultural event, expenses for participants in it, etc.

The project is finalized. In terms of physical progress, the following results were achieved: - The Strategy for Promoting the Musical Culture and the Development of Music Tourism has been elaborated and can be found on: http://travellingonmusicnotes.eu/?p=446&lang=en; - The project beneficiaries have purchased all the musical instruments necessary for the formation of the joint orchestra (flute, oboe, clarinet, trombone, contrafagot, trumpet, horne etc); - The Joint Symphony Orchestra composed by the musicians from Philarmonic Oltenia and Simfonetta Vidin was created; - Two Music Festivals were held, 1 in Craiova and 1 in Vidin; - A musical film journey (Music guide) presenting and promoting the natural beauty and cultural heritage of the cross border region, has been elaborated and can be found on: http://travellingonmusicnotes.eu/?page_id=144&lang=en; - Two Facebook pages were created in Romanian and Bulgarian languages, “Travelling on music notes” for the promotion of the project results which can be found on: https://www.facebook.com/ProiectEuropeanCultural; https://www.facebook.com/Simfonietta/posts/390219628231576;

This project will contribute to both product targets under Specific Objective 2 of the Programme. Under the project, within the framework of the Music Festival, will be founded a Bulgarian-Romanian orchestra, consisting of 52 musicians: 26 representatives of Philharmonic - Craiova and 26 representatives of Sinfonnieta - Vidin. The repertoire of the joint orchestra will be determined after a meeting of the two Orchestral Art Boards. The musicians will be given the opportunity to have 5-day joint rehearsals, which will be enough for them as professionals to achieve high quality performance. The total duration of the Festival will be 4 days, two of which will take place in the town of Craiova and two in the town of Vidin. The concerts will take place at unusual locations - the unique parks of the two cities. On two of the festival days 6 soloists will join the symphony orchestra - three Bulgarian and three Romanian performers. The Festival will become a unique event of great tourist potential, based on the places where it will be held and the high quality of the offered cultural product. The other product that will be created under the project is the “Music Guide”. The cross-border region has a unique system of natural beauties and cultural heritage. The idea is to show and popularize this system by combining the talents of the musicians from the Bulgarian-Romanian orchestra, the possibilities that music offers and the modern methods of promotion. A 30-minute film will be shot, which will show various unique locations from the region where different musical ensembles will perform various musical works. The film will be a musical journey presenting and promoting the region's natural beauty and cultural heritage. A strategic document will be created under the project, too Joint Strategy to promote music culture and the development of music tourism in the cross-border region. The purpose of this document is to explore, describe and analyze the musical richness of the region, both in terms of authentic music and in terms of contemporary achievements in the field of music. The document will outline the possibilities for using this musical culture as a valuable resource for the development of cultural tourism. All forseen activities within the project will be accomplished in the cross-border region and will give their contribution to the increasement in the number of the overnight stay in the region, which is main indicator for the result to Specific axis 2 on the Programme. The developed tourist product “Music festival”, his organization and conducting will have main contribution on this indicator. During the first year, at the time of the realization of the project we expect that the number of overnight stays to be increased with 600. The created festival will be a sustainable cultural event, which will become a part of the cultural calendars in district Vidin and district Oltenia, and in this connection we expect to contribute for the performance of the indicator on the Programme and after the completion of the project. We foresee, average value of increasement around 10 percent for every year, which means that the contribution of the project until the year of 2020 on this indicator will be around 2000.