PROGRAMME
From 1 to 10 May, Nova Gorica and Gorizia will host the second of the four mass events of the European Capital of Culture 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorizia. The 10-day series of events in the borderless area next to Europe Square will bring together culture, sport and entertainment in outdoor venues. In a unique way, it will unite people from both sides of the border, with a diverse official and accompanying programme.
DAILY SCHEDULE:
1. 5. 2025, 8:00–23:00
Europe Square
BORDERLESS FRIENDSHIP MARCH with BORDERLESS PARTY
Join us for the unique Borderless Friendship March – 2 Cities, 1 Heart, which will symbolically connect Nova Gorica and Gorizia for the third year in a row. Enriched with other sports and cultural interventions, the event revives the tradition of the legendary walk from the 1970s and 1980s, when thousands of people crossed the border once a year without being checked. Today, as the two cities are building a new future together, the march remains a symbol of collaboration, healthy lifestyle and community. You can choose among the 7, 12 or 16 km route, all while enjoying a rich programme! Numerous sports associations from both sides of the border will also participate in the event, as well as delegations from sister city Klagenfurt and from Chemnitz, the other European Capital of Culture of 2025.
Hourly schedule:
• 8.00–10.00: gathering and registration of participants,
• 8:00–10:00: participant gathering and registration,
• 9:00: official opening of the Borderless Friendship Walk with opening speeches by both Mayors,
• 9:30: start of the march and other events with video broadcast,
• 12:00–14:00: finish of the various sporting events in Europe Square,
• 14:00–15:00: award ceremony with cultural programme and group photo,
• 15.30–23.00: borderless party with Klangkarussel (AT), Spiller (IT), Vanillaz (SI/HR), Tim Urbanya (SI), Roli (SI) and young talented DJs. In 2015, the duo Klangkarussell was declared the winner of the European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) by the European Commission for their debut album Netzwerk.
Registration is open at the following link
1.–4. 5. 2025, 19:30–22:30
Bevkov trg, Nova Gorica
BridA: CROSSINGS
With the Crossings art project, the BridA collective creates an in-between space that leads visitors into a unique immersive experience beyond sensory perception. The project emphasises crossing borders and borderlessness, creating a new social reality between the physical and the virtual world. Using VR technology, lighting and artistic performance, a completely new co- is built in interaction with the architecture. Organised by BridA, which has already brought the Moon and Mars to the centre of Nova Gorica.
2. 5. 2025, 10.00–22.00
Europe Square and EPIC district
BORDERLESS BASKETBALL
A 3x3 basketball tournament for Slovenian and Italian teenagers aged 11–17, in cooperation with Slovenian and Italian sports associations, complemented by a presentation of the SPF GO! HOOP project. In addition to the tournament, there will be a dunking competition, a three-point contest, cheerleading performances and a music programme with a DJ and bands Generator and Loverlorn.
3. 5. 2025, 10:00–22:00
Europe Square and EPIC district
BORDERLESS STREET
Breakdance is a style of street dance originating from the 1970s Bronx, New York, and was included in the Summer Olympics programme for the first time last year in Paris. Competitions will be organised for different age categories (U12, U18, 2x2), for both girls and boys, with borderless judges. In addition to the competition, there will be dance performances, DJs and MCs workshops, dance routines by local dance groups, followed by an entertaining programme with a DJ and a band, as well as a graffiti and comics exhibition.
Fresh Lab is a rap group from Nova Gorica, consisting of Ja-Sha, Filip and Staš. DJ Emily will provide the beats. DJ Jacksy is one of the leading DJs in the Slovenian dance community, he has spun at events such as Red Bull Dance Your Style, bast'a'move, Crash The Ground and many more. In addition to DJing, he also produces music and spices up every battle with his own beats and remixes.
4. 5. 2025, 10:00–22:00
Europe Square and EPIC district
BORDERLESS FOOTBALL / CALCETTO
A 3v3 football tournament and an exhibition match featuring well-known Slovenian and Italian athletes. In addition, there will be a table football tournament ("calcetto") and dance cheerleading performances by local dance troupes, as well as an entertainment programme with DJ and Avtomobili band.
5. 5. 2025, 9:30–18:00
EPIC district
THE PLAYGROUND – My Border Can Turn Into a Balloon
An official programme event from The Playground project will include creative workshops and board games for the youngest children in cooperation with kindergartens and the first year of primary school. The programme will be complemented by an on-site DJ for children in an improved version of the xMobil. The programme will also feature students from the Nova Gorica Art High School, who will surprise the parents in the morning with sculptures made from around 1000 eco latex balloons, which will be released into the air at 17:30.
SYUM-BALLO
Presentation of a participatory artwork of three matching parts that remind us of the times when we were brothers and sisters. The project was created by the youth from Ad Formandum, the San Luigi Association and the Ajdovščina People's University.
6. 5. 2025, 18:00
EPIC district
LITERARY AND DANCE EVENT IN THE INGEBORG BACHMANN DOME
The writer and the dancer will participate in the art installation event in the Ingeborg Bachmann Dome, a gift by the Carinthian Cultural Foundation. The focus of the dance performance will be on moving outward, both literally and figuratively. The performance is inspired by Ingeborg Bachmann's unpublished poetry work entitled Ängste (Fears) from 1945. The artists deal with fragments of texts, its metaphors and associativity, while constantly moving inside and outside the dome.
Maja Haderlap is a bilingual Austrian (Carinthian)-Slovenian poet, writer, and university professor at the University of Klagenfurt. She writes poems, novels, essays, radio plays, drama adaptations and opera texts published in Slovene and German journals. She is best known for her novel Engel des Vergessens (Angel of Oblivion) and her poetry collection langer transit (long passage).
Leonie Humitsch holds a Master's degree in Dance Pedagogy from the University of Vienna and works as a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher. She works under her own dance label feitanz in Austria, Germany and Switzerland and participates in international festivals.
7. 5. 2025
TREE ORCHESTRA and BulevAR
guided tour from the EPIC district at 14:00 and 16:00
Departing at 14:00 from Europe Square, BulevAR guides you through the physical border points. It is an app that aims to contribute to the enrichment of the relationship between Nova Gorica and Gorizia through technology - online and in physical locations - building connections on a virtual Bulevvar between one Gorica and the other.
18:00
Park Rafut Amphiteatre, Nova Gorica
TREE ORCHESTRA / SYMPHONIC FOREST
A virtual sound installation in the exotic Rafut Park, developed by the Dresdner Sinfoniker and artistic director Markus Rindt, will take us through this special place with a guided tour from Europe Square at 16:00, discovering open-ended narratives to the sounds of Schumann's Forest Scenes and a new composition by Matej Bonin.
In case of bad weather, the event will take place in the Grand Hall of the Municipality of Nova Gorica at 18:30.
8. 5. 2025, 11:00–22:00
Europe Square and EPIC district
THE DAY OF BORDERLESS FESTIVALS
All-day event organised by the Nova Gorica Regional Chamber of Crafts and Business in cooperation with the Nova Gorica and Vipava Valley Tourism Institute and local amateur associations, focusing on amateur culture and tastes without borders. The programme will be accompanied by stalls and live music. The Day of Borderless Festivals unites the Festival of Crafts and Entrepreneurship, Tastes without Borders, the Rose Festival, the Festival of Amateur Culture and the announcement of the winners of the Entrepreneurial Wine 2025 competition.
9. 5. 2025, 9:30–13:30
Europe Square and EPIC district
EUROPE DAY and NE POZABI ME FILM PREMIERE
Europe Day with the youth in Europe Square is organised by the Nova Gorica Grammar School in cooperation with three lyceums from Gorizia. Organised in cooperation with the Representation of the European Commission in Slovenia, the diverse programme will include a treasure hunt, an escape room, a cultural programme, a preformance of a high-school band and DJ, as well as stalls.
20:30–22:00
Europe Square
PRE-PREMIERE OF THE FILM DON'T FORGET ME BY ANJA MEDVED AND NADJA VELUŠČEK
This feature-length documentary is a search for the lost memories of World War II that her grandmother did not tell her about. It is a world premiere on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The directors, Anja Medved and Nadja Velušček, will be present.
Free tickets are available here .
10. 5. 2025, 20:30–22:00
Europe Square
INFERNO + BORDERLESS BODY
The robot-dance performance is part of the official programme of the Borderless Body project, co-produced with the Kersnikova Institute. It is a collaboration between the local MN Dance Company and Inferno authors Louis-Philipp Demers and Bill Vorn for GO! 2025. The performance also includes the audience, who can experience the robotic "skeletons" in action.
The March for Europe project is part of the official programme of the European Capital of Culture 2025 Nova Gorica - Gorizia and is designed as the second of four mass programme events entitled Stop the City! with great cultural and tourist potential.
The March for Europe is organised by GO! 2025 in cooperation with the City Municipality of Nova Gorica, the Municipality of Gorica, the Nova Gorica Public Institute for Sport, the Nova Gorica Regional Chamber of Crafts and Enterprise, EGTC GO, the Public Institute for Tourism of Nova Gorica and Vipavska dolina and the Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Cultural Activities of Nova Gorica.
