Winning the cultural capital title for a year is not the enormous festival that many imagine. But nobody should blame themselves if they have been misled. Several of the 11 original bidders misunderstood what was expected of them if they wanted to hold the title in 2010 alongside Görlitz or Essen in Germany. Veszprém, Székesfehérvár, Kecskemét and Kaposvár all fell out of the race in March, when it emerged that they had drawn up plans for a year-long festival, and not the culture-orientated city development plan which was required.

"A Capital of Culture is not simply a place where art comes to town for a year. It's...an exhibition of European values," says Wolfgang Lorenz, who was in charge of Graz's cultural capital programme in 2003. The aim is to promote developments and programmes that will affect the region in the long-term. That's why Brussels is so keen that there be consensus and shared goals even at the planning stage.

Although shared goals are hardly the main driving force behind the plans of the seven cities (Budapest, Debrecen, Eger, Győr, Miskolc, Pécs, Sopron) that are still in the race. It's no coincidence that half of respondents to a Medián survey in September had never heard of the Capital of Culture title. Pécs has been the most energetic in campaigning for the honour.

There, civil society organisations were working on the their application well before the opening of the competition in 2002. In Győr, preparations only started in autumn 2004, and the token nature of their campaign is shown by the endorsements they've managed to gather for their website. The regional director of the tax office and the director of the local bus company are strongly in favour. The city's rivals focused on local academics and artists.