On 7 and 8 May, the city launched two major initiatives combining contemporary thought, education, artistic creation and civic participation. Through conversations, performances and collective actions, the programme explored how culture can help rebuild forms of coexistence in a context increasingly shaped by acceleration, hostility and social fragmentation.

One of the key initiatives was Europenses, a new platform for contemporary thought held at the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias. Conceived as one of the strategic projects included in the city’s bidbook, Europenses invited audiences to reflect on Amabilidá not as a naïve gesture, but as a political and cultural response to growing polarisation and democratic fatigue across Europe.

Curated by Giselle Etcheverry, the programme brought together internationally recognised figures such as philosopher Renata Salecl, sociologist César Rendueles and philosopher Corine Pelluchon, alongside other voices connected to territory, ecology and contemporary ways of living. The conversations addressed issues related to coexistence, public discourse, care, our relationship with the environment and the need to imagine more habitable futures.

Alongside these discussions, the streets of the city hosted the Marcha por la Amabilidá (March for Kindness), a large participatory parade bringing together around 2,500 children from 30 schools across Oviedo. Developed over several weeks through workshops led by artists in collaboration with teachers and school communities, the project encouraged participants to collectively explore values such as empathy, equality, sustainability and inclusion.

The result was a vibrant collective action made up of banners, music, performative elements and artistic interventions that moved through the city centre towards the former arms factory of La Vega, a symbolic industrial site set to become one of Oviedo’s major future cultural spaces.

More than a one-off celebration, the programme positioned culture as a tool for civic imagination and democratic participation. Through dialogue, creativity and shared experience, Europe Day became not only an opportunity to celebrate European values, but also to actively put them into practice in public space.

Oviedo continues to develop a candidacy built around the concept of Amabilidá, a word that understands kindness not as superficial politeness, but as a model for cultural coexistence, care and shared wellbeing.