One of the leading events in the first edition of “Nine Elephants” was the transformation of the green spaces around the former railway track in the “White Pine” park in the “Gevgeliiski” district of Sofia. It was cleaned within a few days and a concert of a school band took place around several specially created benches and tables, as well as other artistic and social events.

Svetoslav, one of the driving forces behind the Green Line association, says that the idea was influenced by the example of NordBand Trace – a similar space in Wuppertal, Germany, used for organizing events. While studying there, he witnessed how, through a civic initiative, such an abandoned site can be transformed with minimal resources and become a cultural engine for the community.

Thus, the event in the “Gevgeliiski” district raised the question of how little it takes to bring such forgotten spaces into use and how civic engagement with the urban environment is the most important factor for its positive change. What else can we achieve together if, in a few days, some neglected tracks can be transformed into a pleasant place for recreation and socialisation that brings the inhabitants of the neighbourhood together?

During the event, the idea of the so-called “Green Ring” and its passage through “Gevgeliiski” was presented, after which the organizers invited the attendees to answer ten questions about what they would like to see in the space. The culmination was the musical performance of two bands, the members of which are residents of the neighbourhood and students from the St. Luke’s School, where Stella Vassileva is a class teacher.

The organizers say that the whole process around the realization of Friends of the Green Ring is improvised and highly dependent on the neighborhood and the people they meet there. For this reason, it was also important for them to give a stage to the youth instead of inviting commercial and famous performers. Everything happens in about three hours, but now this place has a life of its own, and despite the doubts that what was created will be preserved as it is because of the specificities of the neighbourhood, it continues to exist.

Svetoslav says: “The most interesting thing is that people somehow feel that someone has done something and no one throws their rubbish there. One month later it’s still clean, that’s my biggest gift. Our other reward was that the kids in the neighborhood, when it was all over, were asking,” Will you do it again next year?“,” Please, we want to have a neighborhood fest here.