During the summer season Europe hosts numerous cultural events in many different cities all around its geography. In those festivals, European citizens have the opportunity to enjoy a full range of cultural programmes of theatre, music or dance, in the most varied styles and many different places.

First stop on the European festival tour could have been Avignon in France, which every July hosts one of the most relevant theatre festival in te World with up to 40 shows. Top billing at this year's festival went to a performance of Shakespeare's Richard II at the Palais des Papes.

Also in July, classical-music lovers had an important appointment at Florence for the International Festival of Youth Orchestras. Linked to the Riga City Festival and Provence's Floraisons Musicales, the event welcomes young musicians from seven European countries as part of the European Festival Experience project funded by the European Commission, under the European Programme Culture.

In addition to EU Programme Culture, the Commission also supports these kind of projects and cultural events by means of other programmes such as the European Media Programme, helping to promote intercultural dialogue and to encourage the movement of both artists and art-works around Europe.

Hungarian city of Pécs and the German region of Ruhr, with its capital Essen, are both European capitals of culture for year 2010 together with Estambul, and also host different culture events this summer. First, Pécs closed its international week of culture with an open-air concert by Goran Bregovic, on 31 July 2010. One of the highlights of the Festival was the possibility for the audience to get from Budapest to Pécs travelling in a classical train.

In the Ruhr region,  the Emscher, once the most polluted river in Germany, is benefiting from one of the most ambitious clean-up projects ever undertaken. Until September, visitors can find out all about the project at Emscher Island, with sculptures, installations and unusual projects by 40 different artists.

Finally, Vienna will also be one of the top scenes this summer developing the largest European contemporary dance festival, the ImPulsTanz Festival, running until 15 August 2010.