TPCA approved its programme of support of regional sports and culture for this year. Sponsor donations will go to the basketball club of Kolín, the Rescuers’ Day event, Kmoch’s Kolín music festival, a theatre festival in Poděbrady, Oregon dětem (an event for children), Kutnohorské stříbření festivities, and the Kytara Kutná Hora music festival. In addition, TPCA organizes own events, such as its Beat Festival. The third annual Beat Fest will be held again this year at the amphitheatre of the Kmoch island in Kolín.

„We wish to support social and cultural events that have a history and tradition in the region, but are always developing and improving, which we consider important,“ says Vadim Petrov, director of the Corporate Affairs department of TPCA.

The first event of this year is the Rescuers’ Day in Kolín, presenting all parts of the Integrated Emergency System to the public. This year it will be held on Saturday 8 May, for the fourteenth time already; TPCA has been supporting the event since 2005. The Children’s Day in Kolín is a day of fun and entertainment both for younger and older children, supported by TPCA for the fifth time. This year’s event will be held on Saturday 15 May. The most traditional of the events is Kmoch’s Kolín, an international festival of wind bands. This year, the 47th annual festival will take place between 11 and 13 June, presenting more than a thousand of musicians. The plant has been supporting the event since 2005.

„I am very pleased to see TPCA supporting the traditional events that form an integral part of the social life in Kolín, which serves another proof of the agreement on mutual cooperation,“ says Jiří Buřič, mayor of Kolín.

The basketball club BC Kolín is the most successful sport club of the region; it has been part of the Czech major league of basketball for several years already. The support from TPCA comes by way of a contribution for participating in the next season of the National basketball league, in which the club currently fights its way through the play-off.

TPCA’s focus goes beyond projects set in Kolín; it also includes the neighbouring city of Kutná Hora. Medieval festivities known as Kutnohorské stříbření (the Silvering of Kutná Hora) have been supported by the plant since 2008. This year, the festival will take place on 19 and 20 June. However, the carmaker is more than a mere donor; it takes part in preparing some of the events.

„Last year, with support from the car plant, we were holding the fifteenth annual international guitar contest, presenting 48 contestants from fourteen countries of the world. This year, our plans include the Guitar Night, being an evening and night show focusing on multiple guitar genres, with performances by participant’s of both this and last year’s contest,“ Václav Vančura, deputy mayor of Kutná Hora, unveiled the joint plans.

In Poděbrady, the plant from Kolín will be supporting the 39th annual theatre festival named FEMAD, hosted in this spa city north of Kolín between 9 and 12 September 2010.

Furthermore, TPCA runs its Employee Sponsoring programme, which enables subsidies for sport or leisure activities co-organized for the region by the plant’s employees.

Radek Kňava
Press Department, TPCA