The mayors' conference took place in Zwickau on 27 September 2023. The team from the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 GmbH provided information on the current status of the projects. In particular, they discussed planned communication activities, creative tourism offers in the cultural region and the Purple Path, which can already be experienced in some municipalities and is being expanded.
The Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, Barbara Klepsch, has visited past and future Capitals of Culture in recent weeks, including Wrocław (2016) and Tartu (2024). The trips have shown how implementation can succeed. For the Capital of Culture 2025, Barbara Klepsch states: "Chemnitz is on the right track".
Mayor Sylvio Krause from Amtsberg reported on a trip to Leeuwarden. Together with the Friesland region, the city was the European Capital of Culture in 2018.
This visit, together with other mayors from the cultural region and colleagues from the city of Chemnitz, made a great impression on him. He said that he had experienced the Friesland region five years after the title year to be as lively as he imagined it would be in 2025 and beyond.
"We met many people who told us what was created during the European Capital of Culture process and what is still there today. They all confirmed to us that the European Capital of Culture year brought 20 to 30 per cent more visitors and that this interest has not waned so far."
The Lord Mayor of Chemnitz, Sven Schulze, followed on from this and invited his colleagues from the municipalities in the cultural region to jointly promote confidence and optimism for a successful title year in 2025.
