|
||
|
Salzburg has for centuries been regarded as one of the world’s cultural capitals. There are numerous reasons for this, beyond Mozart, its legendary Festival or being the birthplace of “Silent Night”. Salzburg is an exciting and versatile city which hosts over 3000 cultural events a year, including classical, rock, pop, folk and jazz concerts and plays. The Salzburg 2014 cultural concept is based on this tradition and would add many magic moments to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2014. While thematically the cultural programme is dedicated to youth, it would also include what Salzburg is already famous for: classical concerts and plays. It is the goal of Salzburg’s cultural programme to play a more prominent role in creating the overall experience of the Games and a branded Olympic atmosphere with a magic touch, a task which will be made that much easier by being able to draw upon a creative community recognized as one of the very best in the world. Whilst Salzburg has traditionally been known for highbrow arts, it also has a very strong connection to youth culture. And with approximately 40 million young people living within a day’s commute of Salzburg in the 16 countries surrounding the Salzburg Olympic region, high participation numbers are guaranteed! Salzburg 2014’s planned Olympic Youth Festival will be a street festival with bands and live sites that will take the Games to a new level of “cool.” As the youth party in the streets, the Olympians and Paralympians of 2014 will be treated like the kings and queens of sport in a wonderful Athletes’ Reunion Centre in the Hohensalzburg Castle that seems to crown the whole city. The entire cultural programme will be designed to look forward and to embrace the future just as much as the past. In the same way that the Olympic Winter Games seek to draw the youth of the world together in a celebration of athletic excellence, the Cultural Festival should do the same for the arts. Music has often been called the universal language. This is why Salzburg 2014 plans to create a worldwide Olympic Youth Orchestra, involving all NOCs in the selection of aspiring talented young musicians at all levels of play, a concept designed to emphasize the power of the Olympic Ideal to unite young people in culture just as it does in sport. The Olympic Movement has an opportunity in the hands of Salzburg’s creative community to create new dimensions of cultural expression and thus to revitalize the appeal of the Olympics for the young and create an atmosphere at the Games filled with the dynamic energy of youth. Salzburg´s vision for the Torch Relay 2014 is that the Torch will be taken on one of the world’s most dramatic and scenic mountain chains: the Alps. It will visit Lausanne and eight of the host sites of previous Winter Games with a special tribute to Chamonix, Host City of the first Olympic Winter Games in 1924, 90 years before the potential Winter Games in Salzburg in 2014. Despite honouring the past Olympic sites for their great contributions to the Olympic Movement, the key emphasis of the Torch Relay will be, in line with the emphasis of the Cultural Olympiad, on the young and on the future of the Olympic Movement. The majority of runners selected from the general public will be young people. |
