Are you ready to move?! Warm up! SPORTS FESTIVAL is bringing the Health Ticket back to Cluj-Napoca.
SPORTS FESTIVAL launched Romania’s first smart sports station in Cluj-Napoca in 2020. With its help, passengers could obtain a bus ticket in a free and healthy way: by doing 20 squats. The ticket was symbolically named the HEALTH TICKET and was valid for a journey within the city’s public transport network. The Health Ticket creates a direct connection between physical activity and reward, as people immediately receive a benefit—a free bus ticket. The chosen exercise for this project is a basic movement, easy to perform, and offers major health benefits for those who include it in their daily routine.
This brings us to the third phase of the program initiated by Sports Festival, with the support of Cluj-Napoca City Hall and the Local Council. Once again, passengers will be able to get a free bus ticket in exchange for 20 squats, performed in a maximum of two minutes. The Health Ticket station has been associated with one of the busiest stations in the city, Memorandumului Sud, from the very beginning.
The second phase of the project took place between August 2021 and February 2022, during which over 60,000 bus tickets were issued. In total, across both project phases, Cluj residents performed over 2.3 million squats!
Executive Director of SPORTS FESTIVAL
“Since launching the festival, all our actions have had the same mission: to inspire people to move, to discover the sport that suits them, and to let that sport transform their lives. The Health Ticket project is our way of showing people that sports offer many immediate benefits as well as long-term advantages. The pilot project in Cluj-Napoca was a great success, and we are happy that, together with local authorities, we have found solutions for its continuity at a local level. We are also excited to have initiated many discussions about implementation in other cities, so next year we will most likely have a mini-network of ‘health stations”.
Mayor of Cluj-Napoca
„The smart sports bus station has been extremely well received in Cluj. Thousands of people of all ages have accepted the challenge of doing 20 squats. We want to further develop Sports Festival’s pilot project in our city, as Cluj-Napoca is known for promoting sports and sustainable mobility solutions. Several companies in Cluj want to support the continuation of this initiative, and we thank them all! This is a great example of how NGOs, the private sector, and local administration can collaborate effectively and generate a positive impact on the community through a variety of projects. Congratulations to everyone involved in this initiative!”
