Thessalian Poetry Festival

The Thessalian Poetry Festival started its course in 2013 when it was organised for the first time in Larissa, Greece, in the context of the celebration of World Poetry Day. With years, it became a 7-days-long event with international participation held in 4 cities in the Greek region of Thessaly: Larissa, Volos, Trikala, and Karditsa. The festival usually presents the work of around 100 poets, artists, and musicians, and is visited by around 500 audience members each year.

Since the beginning, the publishing house Thraka has been consistently organising the Festival, and now it is organised by Thraka and the Deputy Mayor of Culture and Science of the Municipality. We often collaborate with other cultural institutions from Thessaly, such as Thessalian Theatre, Diachronic Museum, Museum of Millos, Union of Visual arts “8”, The French Institute in Larissa, and OffArt Dance Theatre, thus connecting poetry with music, dance, and painting.

During the festival, two awards are being awarded: the "Lakis Machanas" Award for the great contribution to literature in Greece, and the "Thraka" Award for the best unpublished poetry manuscript, which guarantees the publishing of the winning book by the publishing house Thraka.

Our mission is to nurture the communal aspect of poetry, but also to connect Thessalian culture to the world.

Our primary goal is to gather new talented poetic voices alongside already established poets in order to bring a renewed interest in culture and poetry, as well as to act as a meeting point for poets of different generations, countries, and cultural traditions.