SIDRAFORUM’26 will address in Nava the municipality’s involvement from the beginning in Cider Cities and in the European CIDEREU programme, with contributions from Marcos A. Fernández and Xuan de Con.
LA SIDRA.- SIDRAFORUM’26 will be held this Thursday, 9 July, at 8:00 p.m., at the Asturies Cider Museum, as part of the Nava Cider Festival programme. The session, entitled “Nava na Rede Europea de Ciudaes de la Sidre y la Mazana -Cider Cities-”, will focus on the municipality of Nava’s involvement from the beginning in the European Network of Cider and Apple Cities —Cider Cities— and in the European CIDEREU project.
This approach is particularly relevant because Nava is not appearing now as a late addition to an already established process, but as one of the Asturian territories involved from the outset in a European initiative aimed at connecting cities, municipalities and organisations historically linked to apple and cider culture. SIDRAFORUM will provide an opportunity to explain what this participation means, what role Nava can play within the network, and what possibilities it opens up for Asturian cider culture.
The session will include the participation of Marcos A. Fernández, president of the Asturies XXI Foundation and a member of the board of Cider Cities, of which the Asturies XXI Foundation is itself a founding partner. His contribution will help place Cider Cities within the work developed in recent years to build European cooperation among cider-producing territories, with a focus on culture, heritage, tourism, the rural economy and the social transmission of cider culture. This international dimension has already been presented in other public forums, such as when Cider Cities presented its European network at the First Canary Islands Cider Forum.
He will be joined by Xuan de Con, organiser of SIDRAFORUM and Nava’s representative in the European CIDEREU project, funded by the European Union and led by the Asturies XXI Foundation. His presence links the event with SIDRAFORUM’s own trajectory as a space for reflection within the Nava Cider Festival and, at the same time, with the municipality’s direct participation in a European project created precisely to strengthen the Network of Cider and Apple Cities.
CIDEREU does not present cider as an isolated product, but as part of a shared culture among European territories. Apples, orchards, cider mills, forms of consumption, festivals, museums, hospitality and the social memory linked to cider are all part of a common field of work. From this perspective, Nava’s presence from the beginning has added value: it allows one of the reference municipalities of Asturian cider to take part in defining this cooperation from its earliest stages.
The evolution of Cider Cities in recent months also confirms that the network is growing as a space for cooperation among territories. The incorporation of Villaviciosa into Cider Cities shows the interest of other Asturian municipalities in taking part in this framework, while the first contacts to include A Estrada in Cider Cities point to the network’s capacity to open dialogue with other peninsular territories with a cider-making tradition.
The choice of the Asturies Cider Museum as the venue for the meeting further reinforces the meaning of the event. Nava has a unique trajectory within Asturian cider culture, through its festival, its cider-making network, its museum and a programme that for decades has helped keep cider at the centre of collective identity. This role has also been highlighted in international cider gatherings, such as the SISGA programme that included Nava and the Asturies Cider Museum.
With this session, the Nava Cider Festival adds a space for analysis on the future of the sector and on the need to participate in stable cooperation networks. Cider Cities and CIDEREU offer a framework to share experiences, strengthen institutional links, open new channels for promotion and place Asturian cider culture in dialogue with other European territories. By participating from the beginning in both processes, Nava is not merely joining that conversation: it is part of its construction.
