Participants from Croatia, Cyprus, Slovenia, Hungary, Macedonia, UK, Belarus, Poland, Romania, Belgium arrived in Lithuania on the 3rd of October 2005 and gathered in Ukmergė. After a nice social evening with different drinks brought by international participants, early on the chilly morning of 4th of October, they left by minibuses to different parts of Lithuania
The first team, led by Guoda Burokienė, headed south to the ethnographic region of Lithuania – Dzūkija, where they met local rural movements, rural activists, visited rural tourism farm. There was a discussion about problems and achievements, hopes and perspectives on how rural territories should look like in a future.
The second group had the possibility to visit rural communities in central and northern Lithuania and participate in a discussion with rural activists in Biržai manor. Participants not only heard about the situation in different regions, but also had to answer many questions on how rural problems are tackled in their countries.
After 2 days of travelling workshops in Lithuania and Latvia all participants met in Birštonas and had a fruitful two-and-a-half-day event with group work and many discussions related to the theme of the whole Gathering – to create s vision for the future of rural Europe.
The organisers of the Gathering stressed: We want our rural communities to be able and empowered to participate in decision making processes on future rural development.
On the 7th of October participants had an impressive gala evening with performance of local musicians, later in the evening started Greek dances with plates breaking, followed by along night with songs and guitar music.