NARVA

Narva is the fastest developing city in Estonia today. This is largely due to a lower starting position. However, many extremely important developments are taking place at the moment. The recent years have witnessed the restoration of a large part of the historic bastions; and ongoing at the moment is the renovation of the Narva bus and train station. According to funding decisions that have already been made, the Narva Museum exposition will be completely renewed in the coming years, a new industrial museum will be established in the Kreenholm complex, and the Narva College of the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, including a large swimming complex, will be built. In addition, a good cycling-road network will be created, connecting the city to Narva-Jõesuu, one of the most beautiful sandy beach sea resorts of the country, 12 km from the city. In 2018 alone, the Narva industrial park will see the start of construction of five new small factories. The nearby Eesti Energia industrial park has also recently come to life.

At the moment, Narva is a bit like an island onto its own, not an organic part of Estonia and even less so of Russia. It is a unique city in the European Union, where 90% of the residents speak Russian as their native language.

St Petersburg as a source of tourism is only in its infancy and the number of Russian tourists has been steadily growing in recent years. The flow of Asian tourists is also increasing, currently moving between Tallinn, Riga and St Petersburg, passing by Narva without stopping. Narva is also being discovered by Scandinavian and domestic tourists alike. The current statistics on tourism in Narva can be found here:

http://tourism.narva.ee/sites/default/files/Turismistatistika%202017_EST.pdf.

NARVA, THE CITY OF CULTURE

The city has a fairly vibrant, mainly self-initiated cultural scene; there are many youth clubs, artisanal workshops, song and dance choirs, a good music school, a youth centre and a young sailor’s club. The city boasts its own symphony orchestra and there are annually held ‘Town Days’ and a young pianist competition named after Chopin. The small “Ilmarine” theatre is active in the city, however it has unfortunately been without a permanent space for years now. The city has 2 large community centres with halls of approximately 600 seats.

Narva in general has seen a rapid rise of cultural events, which will undoubtedly help local activists and leaders in the cultural scene to better realise their potential. Once every two years, a springtime theatre festival will be organised by the Vaba Lava theatre. In July, every year, the Baltic Sun music festival is held. The leaders of the field are considering the organisation of an annual literature festival in the fall, which would focus on Russian-language authors living outside Russia. The Narva edition of the Tallinn Music Week festival will be held in September, and the IDJazz music festival in November; all of which amplifies the activities of the Linda 2 centre, provides an application for the halls and brings tourists to the hotel. Key word – synergy.