'San Sebastian, open city', the title of a poem by San Sebastian's Gabriel Celaya, will be the slogan of the next edition of San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country, which will be held from the 7th to the 9th of October and which, while consolidating its roots in Donostia and Gipuzkoa, aims to open up even more to other forms of cuisine. This was announced by Benjamín Lana, President of Vocento's Gastronomy Division and Director of San Sebastian Gastronomika - Euskadi Basque Country, at an event held at DV Gunea, which was "a first taste of the next San Sebastian Gastronomika". In this presentation, Lana explained how, after the success of the 25th edition of the longest-running gastronomy convention, the organising committee was faced with the challenge of formulating a new, equally attractive edition: "Last year ('The future of history' was the slogan) we thought we had history, but we had to win the future. Thousands of people passed through the Kursaal and it was a meeting place for friends, some of whom had not seen each other for a long time. We also learned from the best in the world".

For this next edition, "we needed to be inspired by something that would give us strength, and we thought that the great uniqueness of this event, the unrepeatable, was not the wonderful people who passed through it, but the city". With this in mind, the organisation of the Congress was based on the poem 'San Sebastián, ciudad abierta' (San Sebastián, open city) by the poet Gabriel Celaya. "It already explained part of the spirit of Gastronomika," said Lana, who went on to explain that "this edition of the congress will try to reconnect with Gipuzkoan society, be more rooted in its surroundings and open up to all forms of cuisine". 

The new director of the Congress also acknowledged that "although we have the best venue in the world, the Kursaal, we must try to surpass it as much as possible. The Kursaal is a 'container' in which we are very happy, but part of what is most interesting is outside". For this reason, "we believe that this look at the territory, the hotel and catering industry, the restaurants, bars or gastronomic associations is just as important as looking at the big stars". 

A miracle that seems simple today

The truth is that the poem 'San Sebastian, open city' has some parallels with Gastronomika, its evolution and its philosophy. "It is a congress that is inextricably linked to this city, like the island of Santa Clara to the bay of La Concha", said Lana in his speech. "San Sebastian, remembered with love, hurried and small", said Celaya; "a city that has always loved itself without walls, that accepts everything and is beautiful", he added in his verses. Today, Gastronomika is a world reference in the field of gastronomic congresses, with an open mentality that accepts everything and wants to go beyond its own walls. And all this without losing sight of the fact that, as Celaya said in the same poem, it is perhaps "the miracle that seems easy to us today, but was an astonishment at the time".