Dear citizens of Zagreb, dear guests!

February is a month mercurial and lively in character, and the offering of events in our city is more than diverse. This month, as well as numerous cultural events we will be celebrating St Valentine's Day and the Carnival period so our visitors and tourists will be additionally entertained by events on the themes of love and those traditional at Carnival time.

For our youngest guests and the young at heart Carnival is the time to enjoy fancy dress. During this fun and relaxing period visit the Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall where traditionally the most magnificent and entertaining masked ball in the city is held. The pop group Colonia will be performing in the Great Hall with their charismatic singer Indira, always responsible for the best nights out; while the programme of entertainment will be spiced up with jugglers, belly dancers, acrobats and fire eaters. You can have a mask made or your body painted, and there will be food and wine aplenty.

For those who enjoy fairs I suggest visiting the Nautical Fair which has for some years experienced steady growth in the number of exhibitors, and last year a leap in the number of visitors. The reason for this is provided by the excellent and always innovative exhibitors who in February create a real marina in the heart of Zagreb. This year there are two new things: the biggest Nautical Fair in the last seven years held across 6 pavilions, and the largest boat ever exhibited at the Fair. At the same time HOTEL&GASTROTEH will be held, the ninth international exhibition of gastronomy, hotel and catering equipment, food, drink and gastronomic innovations.

To finish with, something special for fans of documentary film. Towards the end of February you can visit ZagrebDox, the international festival of documentary film which shows the best creative documentary films, the imaginativeness and subject matter of which make this Festival unique in Croatia and in Europe. As always, ZagrebDox will over the eight days of the festival offer viewers an overview of the most interesting recent documentary productions in the international and regional competitions, as well as official and special programmes and several retrospectives which will be accompanied by guest appearances from some of the most important documentary film-makers today.

Enjoy February, and visit as many of these events as you can so that your memories of our city will be fun and will remind you that Zagreb is always worth coming back to!

Sincerely yours,

Milan Bandić

Mayor of the City of Zagreb