VILNIUS — Last fall, nobody thought the Vilnius European Capital of Culture 2009 (VECC) would look like this. Many more events were planned, and the hospitality industry was geared up for increased visitors as Lithuania’s capital got its place in the spotlight.

Now at the end of tourist season, instead of an influx of visitors the combination of the economic crisis, funding cuts and the shutdown of Lithuanian airline flyLAL doomed the year to dismal returns on such great expectations.

At the beginning of the year, the culture ministry suspected the VECC funding was being abused, resulting with the former director of VECC being dismissed. The flows of tourists were also impeded by the bankruptcy of national flight carrier. Now the year is almost over.

Not all bad news

The municipality put a positive spin on the VECC’s accomplishments.

“Although not to the expected extent, the program partly implemented its objective,“ Vilnius Deputy Mayor Gintautas Babravičius, admitting that some events were canceled due to lack of funding. He claimed that the flows of tourists were bigger than expected considering that they faced difficulties in getting to Vilnius.

VECC Director Rolandas Kvietkauskas confirmed that some debts of VECC are lagging behind from 2008. But the organization also has some debtors itself. Babravičius mentioned that Vilnius municipality, which is one of the main financiers of VECC, owns some 700 million litai (€203 million) to various creditors, VECC being one of them, and will reconsider the budget next week to cut down the expenses by 7.4 percent. The deputy mayor assured that the reduction will have no influence on the cultural programs of VECC.

Break on through

Even before the round of budget cuts began, VECC was already spending less than seven percent of what Linz, Austria the other 2009 European Capital of Culture spent. Then that amount was cut in half at the beginning of 2009. But from that meager fertilizer, worthy cultural events are still springing.

Vilnius European Capital of Culture (VECC) presented the upcoming cultural events for the remainder of the year Sept. 16.

The presentation was introduced after a brilliant performance of artists Auksė Petrulienė and J. Kimo Arbas, probably the most interesting participants of an international arts championship Artothlon.

The show and a press conference took place in a brand new cinema Pasaka which opened Friday 18.

Babravičius rejoiced that over 800,000 people visited 600 VECC events in 2009 so far and Kvietkauskas invited everyone to the remaining 300 events this year.

For instance, next week jazz musicians from all around Europe are visiting Vilnius for jam sessions. From this Saturday to Oct. 4 Euroradio will transmit music from the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, the National Philharmonic, churches, radio concert studios and other venues to its 4 million listeners, thus creating “the biggest concert hall in the world.”

Also in September, a festival of sacral music also starts in Vilnius churches and other places, aiming to present Vilnius as a city open to all religions and languages.

If you think the economic crisis is not torturous enough, try spending a night in the Soviet Bunker exhibit. The notorious bunker has a premier of “Night in the U.S.S.R.” survival camp on Oct. 2. Only the toughest ones survive the interrogations from KGB officers, played by professional actors. If role playing is for you, wait for the project “Day in Exile” in winter, so you can also enjoy an entertaining experience in a reproduced Stalin’s gulag.

Despite the budget situation many more VECC events are still planned. The specific schedule can be found at the official VECC website.

— Baltic Reports editor Nathan Greenhalgh contributed to this article.