Dear citizens of Zagreb, dear guests!

The month of July is the ideal time for evening walks in our city, enjoying numerous musical and cultural events along with a refreshing drink and socialising with numerous visitors and tourists, of which there are more each month. With the coming of summer Zagreb is becoming an ever more popular centre of tourism and the ever richer tourist offering in the very heart of the city is keeping step with the trend.

This year too we have prepared for you the 36^th Evenings on Grič, one of the most popular summer events. Evenings on Gričare held at an attractive location in Gornji grad, the Klovićevidvori Gallery. This year's event will be rich with numerous musical treats and will for sure offer unforgettable evenings to all visitors.

This year too sees the return of Courtyards which tell the story of Zagreb as you have never experienced before. Over ten unforgettable days visitors will have a unique opportunity to peer behind the facades of some of Zagreb's most beautiful palaces and experience the magical atmosphere of these unique Upper Town spaces. And plenty of good urban entertainment awaits, because in the courtyards you can refresh yourself with delicious snacks, refreshing drinks and have fun to the tune of first class musicians playing everything from jazz and classical to pop.

Zagreb this year too hosts the 51^st International Folklore Festival. The programme of the 51^st International Folklore Festival lasts for five days and is made up of drama performances, workshops, concerts of ethnic music, folk sacral singing and exhibitions. As well as the stage on Zagreb's main square performances by troupes are also planned at the already well-known Festival stage at Gradec, while Festival participants will also be performing outside of Zagreb (Sveta Nedjelja, Zaprešić, Vrbovec and Beltinci in Slovenia).

After last year's edition held in the Botanical Gardens, Plants and Music will this year too turn another beautiful city location – the Tuškanac park – into a musical oasis, and again host pianos, violins, guitars, trumpets, harps, marimbas, vibraphones and saxophones in an unusual open-air concert hall where they will play over several consecutive days.

We definitely recommend that you visit Summer in the Museum of Contemporary Arts 2017 and the Medvedgrad Musical Evenings. Summer in the Museum of Contemporary Arts for the fourth year presents an unusual combination of the most exciting music, contemporary art and film, and as well as many special things and surprises for the first time this year a rich multimedia programme will include art activities and performances. Concerts at the old castle at Medvedgrad, the best-preserved fortification on Medvednicadating from the 13^thcentury, are becoming annual events that enrich Zagreb's summer cultural offering and according to the opinion of audiences and critics are becoming some of the most highly-praised summer events in Zagreb.

In cooperation with the City of Zagreb, this year too the Croatian Radio Television ensembles celebrate the Musical Gala thus opening this year's Zagreb Classic.

Enjoy the Zagreb summer and the offering we have prepared for you!

Sincerely yours,

Mayor of the City of Zagreb

Milan Bandić