VILNIUS - Following deliberations by the Seimas (Lithuanian parliament) over whether or not to cut vital funding, the "Vilnius 's European Capital of Culture 2009" (VECC) project started at midnight on Jan. 1 as planned, despite some cancellations.
"It was just fantastic 's the opening exceeded all expectations. Vilnius has never seen so many people coming for the New Year's celebrations and there were a lot of people having a good time without having to drink [to excess]," Elona Bajoriniene, director of the VECC project told The Baltic Times about the opening ceremony.
"The value of the show will grow with time. This was a memory for us of the millennium of our country. We will look back at this in five, 10, 20 or 50 years' time and be proud of this," she added.
The yearlong cultural parade kicked off with a 3.5 million litas (1.01 million euro) bang on New Year's Eve with fireworks and a laser-light show, which was supposed to depict the 1,000-year history of Lithuania.
An estimated 50,000 people witnessed the opening festivities of VECC and the millennium anniversary of the Lithuanian name on New Year's Eve with minimal security problems reported by police.
VECC press officer Albertas Barauskas said it was a record-breaking audience of New Year's Eve celebrations.
The New Year's show came in two parts - 'Musical [at] Hoffman_Spragtukas' was staged outside the Vilnius Concerts and Sports Palace followed by a spectacular Gert Hoff light and music show at the Cathedral Square at midnight.
Raimundas Dervinskas, deputy chief of the Vilnius city police force, said "the New Year's Eve celebration in Vilnius was exceptionally civilized and safe."
"More than 60 persons were detained during the lighting of the Christmas Tree in December, as compared with merely 15 detentions during the New Year's Eve celebrations, which were attended by three to four times more people," he said.
He said few people brought alcoholic beverages and fireworks to the events.
An additional 250 police officers and 70 employees of private security firms patrolled Vilnius streets on New Year's Eve.
FUNDING CUTS
The Ministry of Culture was planning to cut funding to VECC by 50 percent at the end of last year, which would have been matched by the Vilnius Municipal Government had it gone through.
VECC, which is a public institution, proposed a 12 percent reduction in spending on their original budget after the financial crisis prompted sponsors to revise their contributions.
Baranauskas said last year that if the funding had been cut so drastically, then Vilnius would not hold the title of a capital of culture.
"After the opening starts a new life with a big challenge with the world economic crisis, which has touched Lithuania. This is a big challenge for us to handle the program with much less funding," Bajoriniene said.
Bajoriniene said that January and February are set for activities, but "the picture becomes fuzzy after that."
The original VECC 2008-2010 budget was set at 105 million litas. This included 41.9 million litas from the Ministry of Culture and about 16 million from the municipality. Private companies are also supporting the event.
In defense of their wish to cut spending, the municipality said they wouldn't need to keep up spending if the events were cut.
"The municipality is responsible for administration and marketing financing, whereas the Ministry of Culture finances the cultural part. If they cut funding, there will be fewer events, therefore less expenses on administration and marketing," Gintautas Paluckas, Vilnius Municipality Administration director said.
