Digital Euro Week 2020 and 2021
For a little more than a year, the corona pandemic determines public life. City centers are empty, restaurants can no longer be visited, museums are closed. The event sector is particularly affected. Only ghost games take place in the football stadiums, concerts are postponed into the unknown or entirely canceled. Club life also has to suffer. Team sports cannot take place, orchestras can no longer make music together and even comfortable meetings are only possible virtually.
As the European Youth Weeks Working Group, we are affected by both sides. For one thing, we can no longer hold markets which addionally to Donations and funds represent an important financial pillar. On the other hand, our dance group “Die Ludwigsteiner” cannot carry out dance training or perform. As an association whose members are spread all over Europe, this is particularly difficult because we have not been through the whole situation in real life since then no warm hugs when they meet again, no laughing, dancing or making music together and, above all, no euro week.
However, we didn’t want to let that get us down and inspired by countless Zoom conferences and live streams of concerts, we decided to let the Euro Week take place virtually this year. The goal was to stay in touch with our members and friends, but also to give our regular viewers and guests an insight into our club and to let something normal arise again.
We wanted to stay as close as possible to the real euro week. From packing suitcases to traditional waking up to workshops and appearances – there were no limits to creativity. Our members and European friends provided us with numerous contributions. With videos from past performances, handicraft instructions for weaving floral wreaths, traditional songs, dance videos, and even cooking recipes we stayed comfortably the whole week we could fill our channels on Facebook and Instagram and were also surprised by our own versions of our hymn “Viva Europa”. Overall, the response was consistently positive and we were all happy to feel a bit of the euro-week atmosphere.
Unfortunately the situation has not changed significantly and so markets and large events are still not within reach. For this reason, the working group has decided to reissue the digital euro week in 2021. In addition to music and dance, there will also be workshops again and with help of various communication services we want to make Eurowoche more interactive. If you can’t wait so long, you can also look back at last year’s posts on our social media channels as a post or in the stories. The second digital euro week (EUROWOCHE GOES DIGITAL 2.0) will soon be available on Facebook (European Youth Weeks Working Group), Instagram (europaeische_jugendwochen) and our website (www.eurowoche.org).
While we may not see each other in real life this year, we can still try to keep in touch.
Viva Europe!
Christian Blasi
LUDWIGSTEINER BLÄTTER Heft 290 | Juni 2021
