Dear citizens of Zagreb and guests!

The last days of summer in our city are marked by numerous sporting and gastronomic events, while attractive open-air programmes will seamlessly move us into the new season.

Zagreb, a city of sport, will be host to the Group C games of the EuroBasket 2015. It is yet another opportunity for Zagreb to shine as a city with open doors and welcoming citizens. Images of our city will be broadcast around the world, so I hereby wholeheartedly invite everyone to come and cheer during the events at Arena Zagreb or at the fan zone in the main square. Apart from basketball, I would also like to invite you to show support for the 65^th edition of the oldest sporting event in Croatia, the famous Boris Hanžeković Memorial, which often features the best Croatian athletics stars. Participants this year will include Blanka Vlašić, Sandra Perković and many other promising competitors. We are extremely proud that for six decades hundreds of Olympic, World and European championship medal winners, as well as record breakers, have competed in Zagreb. Do not forego the other attractive sporting events, such as the first European Week of Sport at Bundek Park, and the Jarun Beach Open Festival 2015, where visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy beach volleyball games and the Croatian and Slovenian wakeboard championship

The city centre will be the scene of a true gourmet and gastronomic faceoff, featuring three festivals of gastronomy and culture. The first weekend will be marked by the beginning of the Zagreb Food Festival, an event which will give visitors a taste of the best restaurants in Zagreb, as well as provide entertainment for kids. The same weekend will also see the first edition of Zagreb’s Vintage Festival. It will take us 70 years back in time and present an array of artists who nurture retro-culture and styles of that period. A blend of the art of film and food will be provided by the first edition of the Food Film Zagreb Festival, which will offer free film screenings and the gastronomic delicacies that are featured on screen

Finally, I would like to invite you to a very important international gathering at the Zagreb Fair, where the “CITIES and REGIONS – Generators of Development” project will bring together Croatian and international business and institutional subjects, with the general mission of strengthening Croatian and European investment attractiveness and market competitiveness.

Yours sincerely,
Milan Bandić
Mayor of Zagreb