This summer, the 66th Philippi Festival is inspired by and dedicated to the Unsung Heroes. To all those who live on the other side. To those who stand apart from the main characters, to those who usually make up the masses, to the “anonymous other”.

With theatrical and visual performances that illuminate familiar parts of the city in a different way, the festival draws a new map; a unique route that lets the stories of our city be heard. It experiences the last day of the world as we know it with a group of teenagers from the 10th primary school, it meets the “lost” in the forest of Panagouda, it discovers invisible nurses in the arcade of Alexander the Great, it jumps on the wrong bus, It mixes up stolen identities in the Palia Mousiki mosque, is served by the young people who work during the summer season in the bed of the old abandoned swimming pool, and finally ends up in the Antigone Valakou theatre to meet the mothers of the girls who no longer live among us.

At the same time, the Ancient Theatre of Philippi will once again host some of the most important performances of the year, inspiring and promoting texts of ancient and more contemporary dramaturgy, giving a platform to young and established artists who never stop challenging and being challenged. For the seventh year in a row, it will also be organising the Ancient Drama Workshop, which will focus not only on production and presentation, but also on artistic training, trying from the outset to create working groups that, under the guidance of inspiring lecturers, will in turn seek out the archetypal Unsung Heroes.

And finally, because all stories can be told as a game, it will invite its little friends – who will later become adult spectators – to a unique treasure hunt in search of mythical heroes and heroines in different parts of the city.

The stories are still here, and we are always eager to hear them.

And maybe, all together, we can create with old materials, new narratives of our own.

Eva Oikonomou-Vamvaka
Artistic Director