Project 888/Press
note: fine for me ! --Robino 18:16, 11 July 2008 (CEST)
[Fabrice] edited this today: 17:44, 11 July 2008 (CEST)
Feel free to use this press-release to your own local/ national context. You can distribute it to radio stations, tv, magazines, newspapers, etc.
English
A hundred hitchhikers to take part in European Hitchhiking Day
On the 8th of August and as long as a week before, over a hundred of hitchhikers will team up to hitchhike to Paris to promote the idea of hitchhiking. Participants are hitchhiking from as far as Armenia, Russia and Finland. Other places of departure include Utrecht, Brussels, Berlin, Barcelona, Geneva, Rome, Athens, Istanbul, Budapest, Prague.
This project shows that the hitchhiking community is still very much alive. Each year thousands of people hitchhike all over the world; and in many countries it is still a common way of getting around. This is the first hitchhiking event of this kind. The goal is to suggest that it could be a great human experience to pick up a hitchhiker, share their car and exchange stories.
One of the participants established the goal of visiting all the European capitals before arriving in Paris on the 8th of August. An Australian couple in their late fifties, Marie France Gardiner and her husband, heard about this idea and they decided to also take part while touring Europe.
"I love hitchhiking! It is my favorite means of transportation because it is a great way to meet some nice people and exchange stories. It is great to see how helpful people can be. Sometimes they even bring you as far as your front door or they may invite you over for dinner", says Fabrice Renucci, one of the event organizers who will be departing from Yerevan, Armenia.
The European Hitchhiking Day also is the inspiration for a documentary. Five teams made up of a hitchhiker and a cameraman will be documenting what it is like to be a hitchhiker, filming their adventures from starting point all the way to Paris. Other participants will also be contributing to this project with photos, journals, short movies, radio-recordings and other art-forms, bringing together one joint expression of their love for hitchhiking.
Journalists are also invited to join the European Hitchhiking Day. They can team up with experienced hitchhikers, attend prepatory meetings that take place all over Europe from the 3rd up until the 8th. They may also follow a hitchhiker and call one or several of them to receive live-updates and stories along the way.
Contact details
French
Available on July 11th
