After its huge success last year with over 1,000,000 visitors, an actual chocolate building site is being set up for the thirteenth delicious edition of Eurochocolate, which will be held in Perugia from 14th to 22nd October 2006.

Punctual and original every year, the title of the next edition of this tasty fair is: “Costruttori di dolcezze” (“Makers of sweet things”).

Anyone who has a sweet tooth and all those who do not, are encouraged to build a life on positive grounds, as good….as chocolate!

Naturally, chocolate will once again be the only, inimitable and undisputed star of this renowned event. This product, which is loved by everyone, finds a perfect setting here, in the Chocolate City par excellence..

The tools of the trade will certainly not be missing, either.
The most important being the trowel that Eurochocolate has redesigned in a “chocolaty” fashion, and thanks to the creativity of the young and well-established Italian designer Giulio Iacchetti of Around Design, it has become the trendy official promotional item of the fair. This implement will be employed to offer tasty slices of sweetness to every visitor.

Through the trowel, Eurochocolate also wishes to pay homage to famous film director and actor Nanni Moretti, a great lover of delicious Sacher, who used the tool to even out an enormous jar of chocolate cream in the film Bianca.

In an original move, this scene will be projected during the next edition of the sweet fair..

In Eurochocolate construction site, lots of important works will be realized, like the stately Choco Wall that will be built up in Piazza del Circo: It will be a prefabricated wall, 5 mt hight and 12 mt long,.realized by a leader cement industry as Manini Prefabbricati, that will assume the appearances of a gready bar of chocolate. Moreover it will be the focus of curious artistic performance and all the visitors can personalize it.

And it will be the trowel again, simple but essential work tool, that the Eurochocolate builders will use to construct a huge and delicious Igloo with about 3 tonnes of dark chocolate.

Many novel aspects also include setting up the first Eurochocolate Shop, a shop prototype exclusively devoted to chocolate, with a view to creating a permanent franchising project.

Besides, on 16th October with the cooperation of  Unioncamere and ICE, It will take place the First Chocolate Exchange,  a real Chocolate stock exchange where producers will meet with importers, international buyers and important retailers to compare each other and open new negotiations.

In the afternoon, it will be organized a conference about “Chocolate and great organizing distribution”by  Marketing Trade with the cooperation of Mark Up.

As always, humour, games and fun will spice up every feature of the fair, while not forgetting to focus on the development of cultural projects linked to a wide range of art forms, and on the safeguarding of important values such as solidarity, biodiversity, traceability and sustainability of the cocoa production process, with a view to developing a sustainable future by limiting and erasing the differences between developed and developing countries.

These are some of the issues that will be dealt with at the renowned and much appreciated Eurochocolate World event, supported by prominent world organizations like ICCO (International Cocoa Organization). In this edition in particular, the economic situations of some small cocoa producing countries will be presented, including: Vietnam, Cuba, Bolivia and Papua New Guinea…and in this context Equoscuola (the FairTradeSchool) will once again hold lessons about fair trade chocolate.  

Along these lines, there will be another novel aspect this year: Equochocolate (Fairtradechocolate), an exotic corner set up exclusively for certified fair trade cocoa products from around the world.

Another item that will please the ever growing number of visitors who flock to the event will once again this year be the Chococard, which for only € 5.00, will offer a larger number of even sweeter deals compared to the last edition, ensuring lots of fun and chocolaty goodness.  

The Festival will include all the familiar traditional events, too. First and foremost Chocolate Sculptures (Sunday 15th October), the most popular event with faithful Eurochocolate visitors. Skilled artists will sculpt five enormous blocks of dark chocolate, and thousands of chocolate slivers will be handed out to all the sweet-toothed spectators.

The marvellous Chocolate Show will be even richer this year, and will be spread all over the old town centre of Perugia with 150 designers of hand-made and industrial patisserie products from around the world.

In addition, the fantastic Rocca Pralina (Rocca Paolina - Praline Castle) will comprise some highly refined theme areas: La Boutique, A Tutta Tavoletta, Il Cioccolato come Bio Comanda, La Via delle Spezie, La Spalm Beach, l’Ottobre Rosso (chilly and chocolate) and the wonderful Sicilian corner “Modica la Dolce”, thanks to which the Eurochocolate public will taste very fine quality hand-made chocolate.

The Eurochocolate trowel will again play a role in the commercial area called “Fatte a Fette” (“Sliced up”), where the best chocolate cakes will be on offer along with the fun promotional item for all the fans of the event.

The creation of PetChoc is yet another novelty, a pet corner selling chocolate-based products.

This year will also see a greater number of teaching activities aimed at school parties, chocolate lovers, semi-professionals and professionals, and will be organized with the Università dei Sapori of Perugia, providing an opportunity to learn how to make tasty recipes and lots more about the “Food of the Gods”. 

Eurochocolate will also include a new competition for 3rd and 4th year primary school pupils, called “Costruttori di dolcezze”.

The project wishes pupils of all Italian Primary Schools to be actively involved in the event, by stimulating their creativity and imagination, which are essential ingredients to make “sweet constructions.

Tested with a huge success during the previous edition, the ChocoFarm, the corner full dedicated to the chocolate treatments for beauty and relax, will be again dressed in the elegant relax rooms of Brufani Palace Hotel, in the centre of Perugia.

A real beauty clinic with chocolate products that will offer to the all greedy public a lot of relax and beauty treatments.

Moreover, the aromatherapy will cuddle all the visitors with its sweet fragrancies of chocolate, that has been known for ages  for its nutritive properties and antidepressive function.

With regards to chocolate and related “goodies”, the delightful sweetness of hot chocolate will once more be linked to unforgettable literary passages in the sweet area called “Cioccolata con l’Autore” (“Chocolate and authors”).

While nightlife enthusiasts will enjoy the even livelier Chocolate Movida (Chocolate nightlife) in the most fashionable and trendy clubs in the area.

There will also be sweet challenges like Fondente sarai Tu! (Dark chocolate? Speak for yourself!). An event dedicated to all milk chocolate lovers who, after years of silence, will finally be able to rebel against the dark chocolate fad and initiate a veritable self-defence movement!

Concluding this tasty preview, an actual Guinness world record will complete the Eurochocolate building site with the creation of the largest chocolate bar in the world…incredible but truly dark!

Eurochocolate 2006 is all this and more, an event to suite all tastes; taking part will be a sin…of gluttony!