Tampere and Tartu friendship of 30 years celebrated in Tampere on December 3-5
UNESCO City of Literature Tartu participates in Tampere Book Festival on December 3-4, and Tartu Centre for Creative Industries takes part in Tampere Christmas Market with a pop-up shop and showroom on December 3-5.
Pop-up shop sells a variety of design jewellery, clothes, handcraft, and decoration made by Tartu and South Estonia artists and artisans. In addition, Paavo Matsin introduces and reads parts of his new novel Lenin’s Walz at Christmas Market. Matsin was selected Tartu’s city author in 2022, and his new novel is placed partly in Tampere, partly in Tartu.
Tartu Deputy Mayor Lemmit Kaplinski also visits Tampere during the weekend, together with representatives from Tartu’s cultural services and Tartu2024 European Capital of Culture project.
Friendship mural painted in Tartu
Tampere and Tartu long-standing friendship has been celebrated in various ways during 2022.
City of Tampere delegation took part in Climate-neutral cities’ seminar in Tartu in September, and participated in Finland Days programme in Tartu.
During the same week, young artists from Tampere and Tartu painted a huge friendship mural into Tartu’s Friendship Bridge to showcase the special connection between the cities.
Tampere-Tartu Association organized several events in Tampere in October to celebrate the 30th anniversary. In addition, Tampere-maja 25th anniversary exhibition was held at Culture House Laikku in Tampere in August. Tampere-maja is a culture and cooperation centre based in the center of Tartu.
- Tartu is one of Tampere’s most recent twin cities, but it’s also one of the most active ones. The cooperation between the cities has always been smooth and straightforward, and it has always been easy to begin new cooperation projects with our friends in Tartu. Smart city development has been one of the important topics in recent years, and we’ll continue that within EU’s new “100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030” mission, says Anna-Kaisa Ikonen, Mayor of Tampere.
- We warmly welcome our guests from Tartu to Tampere, and to participate in the program of the Book Festival and Christmas Market.
Twin city agreement signed in 1992
Tampere and Tartu signed the twin city agreement in 1992, soon after Estonia’s Restoration of Independence in 1991.
Cities have cooperated in several fields during the past 30 years, for example within Tartu’s European Capital of Culture 2024 project and Tampere’s bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2026.
This year, both cities were selected in European Union’s “100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030” mission, which gives an excellent framework for this decade’s collaboration within smart city development and achieving climate-neutrality goals.
