We, I mean the EHEA Twinning project, took part in Eurovillage happening at Baku Bulvar Park on 1st of October. It was a very nice experience. The weather was sunny and warm, there were bands, a football pitch, language courses, chess and all kinds of other fun and a large number of young people willing to take part in the activities. Eurovillage is an annual happening of the EU and the member states in order to get more visibility to the EU and member states’ co-operation and activities with Azerbaijan counterparts. It was especially targeted to Azerbaijani youth and young adults, but there were families with small children as well as people of all ages.
We had a stand in the EU tent on tent together with a number of other projects, including Erasmus+, other Twinning projects, ADA, the Mobilaze, the ETF and a few more. In the EHEA Twinning stand, there were three of us: Tarlan, his wife and me. We had published a new leaflet on the project (in AZ and EN) and a brand new poster. Our tent was all the time so full of people that it was difficult to get in. It was really worthwhile for the Twinning project to take part – we got much visibility, new friends and contacts.
Also EU member countries had their own tents with various information materials and all kinds of gadgets. There were all kinds of attractions, music, football pitch, chess, face painting etc. as well as people dressed up in national dresses and in fancy dresses, like giants, pirates and princesses. After Santa Claus arrived to the Finnish tent, everybody wanted to sit in his lap and be photographed with Santa. The Finnish stand was also very popular, all the time full of people and a continuous queue in front of the tent. As a whole, Eurovillage had several thousand participants present all the time, maybe ten thousand in total, maybe more. It is difficult to assess the number, since the venues were scattered around a large area and it was a four-hour traffic where people came and went and all the time new people arriving. And the party continued long after the fair, with an evening concert and dance.
