Reworks: Thousands of electronic music fans from Greece and abroad are waiting for the festival in Thessaloniki

From Palataki (Government) to its east Thessaloniki to the Mill in the West, four venues will attract thousands of people who will enjoy dozens of events full of music, dance and club culture, next September in the city, as part of music festival reworks 2023.

Maceo Plex, ARTBAT, GusGus, Mind Against are just some of the names that have already been announced, while the audience is especially looking forward to the duo that has marked the history of modern Greek music, the STEREO NOVA who come to Thessaloniki after at least 25 years.

“We are really happy to have STEREO NOVA which we love so much, because we grew up with them. Since the beginning of the festival, it has been our dream to be able to bring them at some point,” the co-organizer and artistic director of reworks, Anastasios Diolatzis, told the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency.

The group, which expressed the era of the ’90s, singing with a special musical identity, about the urban and dystopian landscape of the big city, everyday life, the illegal late hour parties… announced for this year only two performances: one already took place in Athens, while the other will take place in Thessaloniki as part of the reworks.

Over 10 million in revenue from the first ten years of its operation

Since 2005 so for the first time the organizers decided to create what was missing in Thessaloniki, a music festival with a contemporary musical direction, which will make the city a meeting point for friends of this music, more than 1,500 artists passed through Thessaloniki.

“The festival has a specific philosophy, which is not usually found in the corresponding festivals abroad. Its program is 50% international and 50% with the participation of artists from the country and the city”, stressed Mr. Diolatzis, pointing out the usefulness of promoting the domestic scene. “There are cases of Greek artists who had a career abroad and did not even play here. So it is very important that these artists find a platform through reworks”, he explained.

Accordingly, from the first ten years of the festival’s operation, the revenue for the city exceeded ten million euros, according to Mr. Diolatzis. “50% of our visitors are from Thessaloniki and the other 50% from the rest of the country and abroad. Last year we had a rate of 22% of people from abroad who traveled to our city for the festival,” he said.

reworks in its first year attracted 3,000 visitors and last year the tickets sold were almost 24,000. At the same time, it was not deterred by the pandemic, as its first year was held electronically and the next with special protection measures in accordance with health protocols.

The event, since 2007 and for eleven consecutive yearsis in the category of the ten best festivals in the world for the month of September, which is the best advertisement both for it and for Thessaloniki.

One of its characteristics is that it does not take place in a specific place in the city, which happens for two reasons. “Firstly because when we started it we wanted our visitors to get different experiences from each musical act and we wanted to attract visitors who would also get to know the city through the festival”, noted its co-organizer, recalling that in those years Thessaloniki did not yet have a developed tourist profile.

“The second reason is that there are currently no places in the city where our volume of visitors can be concentrated in a single action. This is impossible,” he added. He also emphasized that year after year Thessaloniki is unfortunately “losing” places of culture.

The week of September 20 – 24 therefore, people of all ages from all over the world will meet in places in Thessaloniki to celebrate, have fun and let the music unite them.