FEARLESS FESTIVALS
International forum in collaboration with the network European Festivals Association
Goethe Institute Athens | July 23 | 10:30-15:00

This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, 1955–2025. For seven decades, the Festival has served as a compass of cultural vitality—an ideal scenery from where the voice of Ancient Drama, Theatre, Dance and Music is transmitted across the contemporary world.

To celebrate this significant milestone, the Festival joins forces with the European Festivals Association, of which it is a member, to present a one-day forum titled Fearless Festivals. Held within the framework of grape – Greek Agora of Performance 2025, the forum will spotlight the vital role of festivals as pivotal spaces for free expression, artistic experimentation, and public assembly.

Hosted at the Goethe Institut-Athen, the event will feature thoughtfully curated panel discussions, bringing together directors of historically renowned festivals alongside prominent voices from Greece’s theatre and dance communities. Together, they will explore the notion of festivals as complex cultural institutions—that must ceaselessly navigate the delicate balance between continuity and change, all the while fostering cross-border collaboration and artistic mobility.

10:30 | Arrival

11:00 | Opening remarks

· Welcome: Katerina Evangelatos, Theatre and Opera Director, Artistic Director, Athens Epidaurus Festival
· Welcome: Jan Briers, President, European Festivals Association

11:30 | Fearless Festivals: Leadership, Risk and Reinvention

Speakers:

• Haris Pašović, Director, Sarajevo Festival (Bosnia Herzegovina)


• Milena Lubarda Marojević, Director, Theatre City Budva (Montenegro)


• Johanna Freundlich, Artistic Director, Helsinki Festival (Finland)


• Gabriella Triantafyllis, Chief Artistic Programming & Production Officer, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (Greece)


• Florian Borchmeyer, Curator, Festival International New Drama - FIND / Schaubühne Berlin (Germany)

• Patricia Apergi, Choreographer


• Katerina Giannopoulou, Theatre Director


• Pantelis Flatsousis, Theatre Director


• Anestis Azas, Theatre Director


• Argyro Chioti, Theatre Director, Artistic Director, National Theatre of Greece