The Festivals of Thessaloniki are a group of festivals held throughout the year in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

International Trade Fair

The

Thessaloniki International Fair The Thessaloniki International Fair (, ''Diethnis Ekthesi Thessalonikis''), abbreviated TIF (ΔΕΘ), is an annual international exhibition event held in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city. It has been held in the first week of September ...

has a venerable modern history dating to 1926. Hosted every September for 10 days at the 180,000 m² Thessaloniki International Exhibition Center, in the heart of the city, the fair is organised b
HELEXPO
which also organises themed exhibitions and congresses throughout the year. The International Trade Fair is inaugurated by the Prime Minister and attended by more than 300,000 visitors every year.

International Film Festival

The

Thessaloniki International Film Festival The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) is a film festival held every November in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. It features internationa ...

has become the primary showcase in

Southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...

for the work of new and emerging filmmakers, as well as the leading

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

of the region. The event features an International Section, its Panorama of Greek Film, the New Horizons program, the Balkan Survey, and numerous retrospectives and tributes to leading figures in the world of film. Since 1993, a succession of leading lights of international cinema, including

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola ( ; born April 7, 1939) is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. List of awards and nominations received by Francis Ford Coppo ...

Faye Dunaway Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Faye Dunaway, many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, ...

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress. She is considered one of the greatest European actresses on film. In 2020, ''The New York Times'' ranked her as one of th ...

and

Irene Papas Irene Papas or Irene Pappas (, ; born Eirini Lelekou (); 3 September 1929 – 14 September 2022) was a Greek actress and singer who starred in over 70 films in a career spanning more than 50 years. She gained international recognition through ...

, have visited the Festival.

Documentary Festival

The

Thessaloniki Documentary Festival The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF; ) is an international documentary festival held every March in Thessaloniki, Greece. TDF, founded in 1999, features competition sections and ranks among the world's leading documentary festivals. Since ...

was launched in March 1999, inspired by Dimitri Elpides and benefiting from the local public's enthusiastic response, alongside extensive coverage in the local and international press. In 2005, 22,000 admissions were registered. The main programme focuses on documentaries that explore global social and cultural developments, and also now introduces a number of new side sections and events based on important works by new documentarists. Films from the main programme will be candidates for the

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for ''Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique'') is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the wor ...

and also the Audience Awards. The festival attracts a filmgoing public which rediscovers, year after year, images of the new century, new film ecritures, new directors, new technologies, but also representatives of the film world who find in it a reliable organisation appropriate for promoting their work. The event revolves around a sequence of unchanging sections: stories to tell, views of the world, the recording of memory, and portraits, but each year's programme is also supplemented with several others. The Festival aims to the offer the filmgoing public annually gathering in Thessaloniki an exploration of the common images of the early 21st century, and to explore its human landscape through documentary.

International Festival of Photography

The Thessaloniki International Festival of Photography (Photosynkyria) takes place in Thessaloniki from February to mid-April of every year, attracting the interest of both the photographic world and the wider public, while also functioning as a meeting point for the Greek and the international photographic scene. Photosynkyria exhibitions and events are hosted in a variety of venues around Thessaloniki, including museums, heritage landmarks, galleries, bookshops and cafes. Photosynkyria was launched in 1988 by photographer Aris Georgiou, and over the past five years has been organized by the Museum of Photography, which annually appoints the

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

of the festival.

Thessaloniki International Book Fair

View of Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre

The TIBF began in 2003 and has grown is the leading cultural event for books in Greece, as well as to become a focal point for the book world in Greece and the wider Balkan and Mediterranean region.

Dimitria

This three-month-long festival of cultural events has been held every September–December since 1966. Named after Agios Dimitrios ( St. Demetrius), the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

of the city, it has become something of an institution for the city and very popular with the local population. It includes musical, theatrical, dance events, street happenings and exhibitions, and is organised and overseen by the Municipality of

, celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2015.

Video Dance Festival

The Video Dance Festival started in 2000 at Thessaloniki as an international

dance film A dance film (also known as screen dance) is a movie in which dancing is used to reveal inspirational challenges and the central themes of the film, whether these themes be connected to narrative or story, states of being, or more experimental and ...

festival, but soon widened to include additional experimental forms incorporating movement and the moving image.

DMC DJ Championship

The Greek DMC DJ Championship is hosted in Thessaloniki at the International Trade Fair Of

. DMC’s World DJ Championships, sponsored internationally by Technics and

Ortofon __NOTOC__ Ortofon is a Danish manufacturer of electronic audio equipment. It is the world's largest producer of magnetic cartridges for phonograph turntables, with 500,000 cartridges sold annually. History Engineers Arnold Poulsen and Axel Peter ...

, has grown over the years and the formats of its competitions have developed along with demand. Originally intended to be a DJ mixing battle,

DJ Cheese DJ Cheese (born Robert Cheese) is an American disc jockey and record producer who won the 1986 DMC World Final in London, showcasing the art of scratching in turntablism for the first time. He also appeared in the 1986 UK tour with Run-DMC. E ...

introduced scratching in his routine in 1986, changing the course of future DMC battles. The only equipment permitted in Technics' DJ Championships worldwide are Technics SL1200 turntables and the Technics EX-DJ1200 mixer; the DJs are allowed a period of exactly six minutes to perform.

Thessaloniki Hip Hop Festival (THHF)

THHF
(Thessaloniki Hip Hop Festival) is Greece's biggest HipHop & Underground Rap festivals and it's organised and promoted b
Zoltan Tribe
THHF was foundered in 2003 and since then it has hosted world-famous artists as RA The Rugged Man (USA),

DJ Vadim Vadim Alexandrovich Peare (), known professionally as DJ Vadim, is a Russian-British DJ and record producer. Born in Saint Petersburg and raised in London, Peare is additionally a promoter, record collector, radio presenter, occasional painter ...

& Yarah Bravo (UK),

Afu-Ra Aaron Ocosice Phillip (born January 31, 1974), known professionally as Afu-Ra, is an American rapper. A member of the Gang Starr Foundation, he has worked closely with its members, including Gang Starr, Jeru the Damaja, Big Shug and Group H ...

(USA),

Foreign Beggars Foreign Beggars were an English Hip hop music, hip hop and dubstep group. Since their formation in 2002, the group's trajectory had seen them evolve from an underground hip hop group to an electronic crossover act. The group consisted of four a ...

(UK),

Lowkey Kareem Dennis (born 23 May 1986), better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music busi ...

(UK), Da Shogunz (NL), Snowgoons Soundsystem (DE), Freestyle (The Arsonists), Lerroy of the Saian Supa Crew (France),

Wax Tailor Jean-Christophe Le Saoût (; born on 19 July 1975), better known by the stage name Wax Tailor, is a French record producer, DJ, and talent manager. He has released six studio albums collaborating with other artists. Early career After being a h ...

(France), DJ Flip (ITF world), Zion I (USA), Zontanoi Nekroi, FF.C, Razastarr, Eisvoleas, Voreia Asteria, Ladose, Apexeis, Phase 3, Orthologistes, Psychodrama07, RNS, Sifu VERSUS, Sugahspank!, Professional Sinnerz, Rodes and many more.

External links

The official city of Thessaloniki Tourism OrganizationThessaloniki International Festival of PhotographyThessaloniki Museum of PhotographyThessaloniki Hip Hop FestivalThessaloniki Extreme Sports Festival
{{coord missing, Greece Thessaloniki (regional unit) Annual events in Thessaloniki Tourist attractions in Thessaloniki Culture in Thessaloniki Electronic music festivals in Greece Music festivals established in 2003 *