The time-tested pillars of cultural and sporting life in Pardubice have entered the third year where they present themselves as Pardubice Tahouni. They represent a set of unique events across all genres – theatre, classical music, film, folklore and sports in a variety of forms, including aerobatics, motorcycles, and, of course, horses as one of the main symbols of the city. The most significant events are funded by the city’s own support program due to the need to maintain the continuity and tradition of the events in the following year. Pardubice Tahouni have their own logo, and now even a shared website.
“The subsidy program ‘Pardubice Tahouni’ only supports single events that have a tradition longer than 10 years or that are the spiritual property of the city and have become the central pillars of its culture and sports, help the city build a strong and popular brand on a national and international scale, and have an irreplaceable share in the field of tourism and increasing the attractiveness of the city for domestic and foreign tourists, ” says Martin Charvát, Mayor of Pardubice.
The biggest news is the change from the two-year subsidy program to a three-year one. “Starting this year, the Statutory City of Pardubice commits itself to stable financial support of selected cultural events for the next three years. “We want to ensure even greater stability of events we truly value, and thus make it clear that our program gives Tahouni future financial security for budgeting, ” says Deputy Mayor Jakub Rychtecký, who is in charge of culture, sports and tourism.
The organisers of the events approved and supported as “Pardubice Tahouni” are required to actively and visibly promote the city of Pardubice and collaborate on the mutual intensive and meaningful interconnection of their events with the city’s offer of leisure activities. “After the first two years of their existence, we consider Tahouni a great step – we promote our events under a uniform logo, we publish comprehensive pamphlets with more detailed information and a map, for which we have come up with tourist-popular distribution locations. This year, we actively contributed with another novelty – a joint website. All supported events will be arranged in a clear and sequential order on one website: www.tahouni.eu, ” says Ivana Liedermanová, Head of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, as she assessed the first two years of funding.
“Pardubice Tahouni is a project that makes sense. It supports activities that are beneficial to the city and its people and that are typical for the region. Horses and horse racing is undoubtedly one of the key traditions of Pardubice, and we are glad that we, too, can be “tahouni” (workhorses). Velká pardubická and the “Koně v akci” exhibition are visited by tens of thousands of visitors every year, and it is crucial for us to have the support of the city for the next years so we can focus on the continuity and interconnection of our events, ” says Martin Korba, Vice-Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Dostihový spolek a.s., as he commented on the subsidy program.
This year, Pardubice Tahouni have been joined by one more member, making them 15 now. “This year, events included in the Tahouni program will be funded by over 5.9 million CZK, followed by another 500 thousand CZK to reinforce joint marketing, ” says Deputy Mayor Jakub Rychtecký. Two events of the Tahouni program, which are rightfully cultural pillars of the city, are city events with their own budget, namely the spring part of the city’s festivities, “Zrcadlo Umění”, and their autumn part. Based on the recommendation of the commission of representative clubs, Pardubice Sports Park is now a new member of the Tahouni program. “I am very happy for this, as without this event, August in Pardubice would be hardly imaginable. For two years in a row the event has been visited by tens of thousands of people from all over the country, and it made people talk about the city, which has surpassed our expectations in terms of tourism”, says Deputy Mayor Jakub Rychtecký. “Thanks to the inclusion of the Sports Park in the subsidy program, we can be certain that Pardubice will be active in the following years, and that we will bring all generations to sports, especially our children.”
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