This year, the Festival Maribor has taken a further step towards social responsibility by presenting an additional set of activities under the title “Festival for Maribor”.

The main purpose of these activities is to include the citizens of all ages and interests, but mostly those who are, for one reason or another, excluded from cultural events. These activities include the elderly and youth, prisoners and the passers-by and thus follow the Cultural Capital of Slovenia – Maribor 2012 initiative – the cultural capital for all.

1. Collaborating with nursing homes and gerontological institutions by organizing lectures with short preconcert music performances, which illustrate the Festival Maribor 2012 program. A certain number of free concert tickets will be available to nursing home residents and their escorts.

2. Expanding the network of Festival Maribor ambassadors - an international network of volunteers, mainly elderly music lovers, who help to promote the Festival. Both above mentioned activities coincide with the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012.

3. Organizing a Festival Maribor concert for the prisoners in collaboration with the Maribor Prison. By doing so, we would like to raise awareness about the positive effects of music on the subconscious, which result in lowering aggression levels and help with the rehabilitation of prisoners before being released. Similar actions have been popular and proven very affective abroad, however, this is the first time that actions such as the one mentioned are undertaken in Slovenia. 

4. Lectures at schools and universities in collaboration with the Slovene Musicological Society and interesting interactive teacher packs to introduce primary and high school students to the Festival programs before the concerts.

5. During these difficult economic times the Festival doors are again open to the unemployed - a certain number of free tickets will be made available.

6. And last but not least, liven up the city of Maribor with complimentary concerts on the old city squares.