Many thousands of people from the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean gathered on the evening of the 22 May for the first Euro Mediterranean Dialogue Night.

Many events took place in cities all across the Euro-Mediterranean region, from intercultural concerts in Jenin City, Barcelona, Palermo and Gothenburg to public debates and social gatherings in Naples, Rabat, Brussels and Weimar. While the events were diverse in terms of substance and approach, they were all centrally focus on promoting the importance of issues related to coexistence across the region.

In the city of Athens, a symbol of common Mediterranean heritage, the cultural act En Chordais played their award-winning 'A Tale of Music', to an audience of over 1600 people with musical acts from Istanbul, Tunis, Cairo, Beirut, Avignon, Granada and Venice. Simultaneously, on the southern shore of the Mediterranean, 1500 people from across Egypt gathered in Alexandria in the ancient Qaitbey Fort for a series of cultural performances, including a concert from the internationally acclaimed artist Fathy Salama performing together with different European musicians.

The Dialogue Night is an initiative of the Anna Lindh Foundation and its network of civil society organisations and is being held in the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean Year of Dialogue between Cultures.

Mr André Azoulay, President of the Anna Lindh Foundation, commented:

“The enthusiasm inspired by this Dialogue Night is a testimony of the Anna Lindh Foundation' capacity for mobilisation and of the wishes of our civil societies that want to express themselves and act to say their commitment towards rebuilding the spaces for exchange that are lacking''.

Shared features across the Dialogue Night events included people registering their individual ‘messages for dialogue’, to be streamed across the region via online media, and a common film for intercultural dialogue played in synchronisation in the various countries. Through connecting together the different events and messages the organisers aimed to reinforce a sense of community across actors and people working for dialogue in the region.

Mr Azoulay personally presented the initial outcomes of the Night to representatives of the governments of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership who conveyed in Athens on the 30 of May for the first ever ministerial on intercultural dialogue.