WHAT'S NEW!? #28 - VILLACH IN JULY 2023

The welcome2villach team collects the most important news from Villach's city life every month in a compact "news story" with links to further information. In July we look forward to free public transport to the lakes, congratulate the winners of "My Idea - My Shop", are excited about :vifi, Villach's innovative artificial intelligence, and look forward to the brilliant summer events! 

• Summer Bus Card: Once again this summer, all Villach residents can travel to Lake Faak free of charge with the Summer Bus Card up to and including the 30th of September. The card can be found in the current July issue of the Villach city newspaper, as well as at the Citizens' Service Centre in the town hall and at the BUS:SI office on Hans-Gasser-Platz.
   
• Fibre optic expansion: Investment in the millions for Villach. Several large companies, such as Magenta Telekom, Kelag and A1, are currently working on a comprehensive fibre-optic expansion in Villach. This will make the city even more attractive as a place to live and work. 
   
• My idea - My shop: For the fourth time in a row, the City of Villach and the Carinthian Economic Development Fund (KWF) are looking for young entrepreneurs who want to set up their own business in Villach's city centre. This year, four winners emerged from the "My Idea - My Shop” initiative. You can read all about the competition and the winners here.

• :vifi helps with the search: Villach is a high-tech city and villach.at now features :vifi, Villach's artificial intelligence, which answers questions about the city of Villach. :vifi provides clearly summarized answers in all languages! 
   
• Start of construction: The redevelopment of Italiener Straße continues to progress, with the next step being the construction of a roundabout between the Eni petrol station and the Kärntner Maschinenfabrik. This modern solution will not only increase the fluidity of traffic in the future, but also the safety for all road users. 
   
• Villach has received awards: Villach has just received the international "Livcom" award for particularly high quality of life, and now further honours have followed for the civil engineering and Wirtschaftshof departments. For the first time, the teams received a state and administration award.
   
• Bruno Gironcoli Promotion Prize: Year after year, the Bruno Gironcoli Promotion Prize honours young artists from Villach. This year the prize went to 24-year-old classical accordionist, Michael Schwarzenbacher, to writer Alina Lindermuth, to actor and author Stefan Ofner and to artist Leon Radl.

• Ideas competition kaerstin: The digital platform kaerstin offers the possibility to do official business digitally in a time-saving way. This not only includes online forms, kaerstin also offers registration data or a citizen service account that lists transfers transparently. Now the model is to be further developed with the help of Villach's citizens. Ideas are being sought to make "kaerstin" even more user-friendly.
   
• Events: In July we are looking forward to numerous events taking place outdoors in Villach's beautiful city centre. We start from July 5th-8th with the Spectrum Festival around the Rathausplatz. Artistic director Martin Dueller and co-curator Dušana Baltić offer four days of performance, theatre, film, literature and workshops. Admission is free for all events! Every Wednesday and Friday the Draupuls show takes place starting at 9:30 pm. From June 28th to July 1st, we are looking forward to the Alps-Adriatic Ceramics Market. Every Friday until July 21st it gets traditional at the organic farmers' market. On July 14th the Freitracht Supercup will take place. On July 12th, 19th, and 26th the street artists will come to Villach, and the popular Shopping Nights will take place on July 19th and 26th. We are of course also looking forward to the 78th Villacher Kirchtag from July 30th to August 6th and to the Villacher Kinosommer from July 14th-27th and from  August 9th-20th.