Culture is a unique developmental pillar
In a city that is transforming, shaping its new, modern identity, and reintroducing itself to the world, Culture serves as a unique developmental pillar, a factor of sustainable economic growth, and social cohesion.
The 59th Dimitria Festival, which takes place this year from September 19 to November 1, reaffirms its leading role in the city’s events, offering a pluralism of choices that highlight and celebrate the unique characteristics of a city that dares to innovate — a city that is outward-looking, cosmopolitan, diverse, and inclusive, while at the same time showcasing its contemporary cultural identity. With the crucial support of the Ministry of Culture, we have made every effort to give Thessaloniki’s most important cultural institution the aesthetics, prestige, and dynamism it deserves. The creative collaboration and partnership of top institutions, such as the Greek National Opera, Thessaloniki Concert Hall, Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, as well as private cultural and artistic organizations, offer the public a series of outstanding events, further enhancing the city’s presence on the global cultural map.
Thessaloniki is proud of one of the longest-standing festivals in the country, consistently investing with planning in its cultural heritage, leveraging its rich past to secure an even brighter future!
Stelios Angeloudis
Mayor of Thessaloniki
Culture transforms, Thessaloniki is changing itself
The Dimitria Festival, which has accompanied us since 1966, returns again this year with full force to take us on a journey, inspire us, and move us. This year, the festival invites us on a transformation journey, inversely inspired by the atmosphere of transformation in the works of Franz Kafka, the commemorated author of this anniversary edition.
Visual arts, theater, music, dance, cinema, literature, performance, and for the first time, gastronomy, form the program of the 59th Dimitria Festival, which will unfold throughout the autumn with a series of overlapping events and activities.
Culture transforms and is transformed, not by chance but as the result of individual and collective effort. It envisions, creates, innovates, changes, progresses, and evolves throughout the centuries.
Culture is an achievement of all of us, and as citizens, we continually strive for a society, a city, that will meet our needs and serve as a point of reference. As Kafka said, “The path is made by walking.” And we, the citizens of Thessaloniki, are the ones who shape its future. We are the architects of the landscape we will leave for future generations.
Culture transforms, and Thessaloniki changes.
This is precisely what this year’s festival program reflects, along with the festival’s visual identity. Starting from the many mosaic tiles – the trademarks of our multicultural past – the pixels that act as a bridge to the labyrinthine present symbolize both a desire for introspection into our history and the promotion of an optimistic, multifaceted present, which, with self-awareness and creative freedom, paves the way for the long-awaited condition of a better future.
Together with the artistic committee, we have tried, to the best of our ability, to ensure that the various events hosted at the 59th Dimitria each add, in their way, an additional commentary to the overall Kafkaesque theme of the festival.
Welcome to the 59th Dimitria Festival.
Experience it, watch it, embrace it, and enjoy it!
Vassilis Gakis
Deputy Mayor for Culture, Tourism Development, and Intermunicipal Cooperation, Municipality of Thessaloniki
Deputy Mayor for Culture, Tourism Development, and Intermunicipal Cooperation, Municipality of Thessaloniki
19 SEP
01 NOV