Summer evenings in Northern Greece will be filled with theater, music, dance, art, cinema, archaeological talks and many parallel events.

The meeting point has remained the same for half a century and is located in Pieria. The 52nd Olympus Festival starts next week and promises to cause strong emotions through a rich and carefully selected program, which will last until September.

The artistic program of this year’s event was presented today with a special press conference in Thessalonikithe city from where it attracts many spectators, while similar presentations were or will be held – apart from Pieria – in Athens, Larissa, Imathia, Kozani, etc.

“This year we have a very great program which we have prepared with a lot of love even since the winter and which has nothing to envy from other big well-known festivals. It is multi-thematic, it contains all kinds of arts and everyone will be able to find something that concerns them and interests them”, said the president of the Olympus Festival Organization Grigoris Papachristos to the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency.

Ancient comedies, tragedies, classics and contemporary plays will be presented in the Ancient Theater of Dion, with a capacity of 4,000 people.

Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes, will pass the baton to Shakespeare and Twelfth Night, while Penelope Delta with the Tale without a name, will attract young and old alike.

“Theatre is what drives our own festival, while there are other important events around. This year the biggest program is the shows coming from Epidaurus. This is always the purpose of theater. How will it show, demonstrate and demonstrate the big questions posed by the big theatrical performances”, the artistic director of the Olympus Festival Giorgos Handolias told the journalists.

Some other nights, music will resound in the theater by Stavros Xarchakos, Yiannis Charoulis, Eleftheria Arvanitakis and Eleonora Zouganelis, the children of the Music School who will join their voices with Eleni Tsaligopoulou and Babis Stokas, the concert by the University Orchestra of Tibigen, as well as a tribute to Maria Callas.

“Nine countries participate in this year’s festival with a performance or event of their choice. This arose from the institution of honored countries that we have implemented for years. This year’s honoree is India, a country historically connected to us by M. Alexander’s journey from Dion to there,” Mr. Papachristos emphasized.

The dozens of productions of the festival will be hosted in eleven venues, such as Platamonas Castle, Ancient Pydna, the Roman Conservatory or the Byzantine Church of Panagia Kontariotissa. The curtain of the Festival opens on Saturday, July 8, with a tribute to Dimitris Pandermalis, the man thanks to whom the region gained global exposure. According to the organizers, the event is to honor the late archaeologist for his entire work and especially for the discovery, preservation, study and promotion of the findings of the area of ​​Dion.

“It is a festival that gives every year a different cultural, cultural and tourist aspect to Pieria and in general to the Region of Central Macedonia”, said the deputy governor of Pieria Sofia Mavridou, emphasizing that the Region is a fellow traveler and helper together with the organizers, the municipality and the other agencies.

“We want to highlight the culture in Pieria, but also the organization that presents our place, a blessed place, worth living and getting to know”he added.