Greece Holidays - Event

The Dimitria Festival, held throughout the town of Thessaloniki, presents a wide range of music, theatre and dance and is the biggest event on the town's annual calendar.

The traditional Thessaloniki feast day commemorating St Demetrios traces its heritage back to the days of the city's Golden Age, when the Byzantines ruled a vast empire from Constantinople (14th and 15th centuries). In those days the feast was known as "The Panathenaea of the Athens of the Middle Ages". Having been all but forgotten, it enjoyed a remarkable revival in the 1960s and has gone from strength to strength ever since.

The festival prides itself on its mix of the traditional with the avant-garde and the range of events is impressive, featuring theatre, opera, dance, music, art and literary seminars. Past contributors have included Alan Bates, Peter Hall, Harold Pinter and major national ballets, operas and symphony orchestras.