The island of Crete may be mostly known for its unique natural beauty which attracks hords of tourists every summer. Yet, this September a major cultural event will take place in one of its most beautiful cities, Heraklion, which will become the venue for the 1st Crete International Poetry Festival.
With the participation of 18 poets from 12 different countries, the three-day Festival (19-21 September) aims to promote the Greek civilization and more specifically Crete’s tradition: Cretan poetry, oral tradition, music and folklore, acting at the same time as the meeting point between the East and the West, aiming to bridge different languages, cultures, poetic writings and expressions. Its long -term goal is to establish a new institution of literature and poetry, to bring togehter festivals from around the world, and to broaden the number of participants and their countries of origin, offering free speech to all voices and cultures.
This year’s festival will host major poets from the USA (Lawrence Schimel), Germany (Gerhard Falkner), Switzerland (Jochen Kelter), France (Guillaume Decourt) , Italy (Zingonia Zingone), Croatia (Marco Pogacar), Serbia (Goran Djordjevic), Turkey (Gokce Celebioglu, Selahattin Yolgiden), China (Yu Jian), India (Rati Saxena, Hemant Divate) and of course Greece (Titos Patrikios, Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, Anastasis Vistonitis, Aristea Papalexandrou, Koukis Christos).
The festival’s program includes, among others, readings at the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, the Knossos Archeological Site, the Seferis Hall and the Vikelaia Municipal Library of Heraklion, the Lychnostatis Cretan open-air Museum. The festival is open to all those interested in poetry and literature and is definitely worth attending. Stay tuned and enjoy the festivities!
TAGS: LITERATURE & BOOKS | READING GREECE
