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Every year, the Greek capital holds a festival of arts, which is one of the most important cultural events in the country. Persons like Jose Carreras, Gerard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Javier Barden, Kevin Spacey and a number of other famous artists have been guests at the Athens Festival in recent years. This year's list of artists is not short, but they are mainly local artists.  The organizers apparently believe that the annual event may not be as glamorous as in previous years, but it will not be less interesting.

The strongest names of Athens Festival 2013 are Patti Smith, Diana Krall and Dimitris Papaioannou according to the programme of this year's summer festival which the organizers of the cultural event have announced with a significant delay. Deputy Minister of Culture George Tsavaras said that the government had made an effort not to reduce the budget of the festival compared to last year, which, however, is about three million euro.

The legendary voice of rock, Patti Smith, who is known not only as a musician but also as a writer and poet, will perform before the Greek audience in Irodio on 22 June this year.

On 1 July, another cult figure on the world jazz scene, Diana Krall, will delight the residents and guests of Athens. Her velvet voice will fill the space of the ancient theatre at the foot of the Acropolis not in just one show. Krall’s concert will be dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Greek-Canadian friendship as stated by the organizers.

On 3 July, the lovers of Greek song will enjoy the renewed repertoire of Haris Alexiou, who will perform a concert with the Nouvelle Sextette band.

Choreographer and director Dimitris Papaioannou is back on the Greek scene with a play full of naturalism, which is entitled "Primal Matter." The play will be performed in the "Piraeus 260" space and it will be on stage throughout the festival.
 
"Piraeus 260" is the address and name of the reconstructed old Athenian furniture factories, which for years have sheltered a large part of the cultural events of the festival. One of them is the work of Nersin Kazankaya from Istanbul, who wrote and directed the play "Izmir, my beautiful Izmir", which will be presented by the artistic group of Pera theatre on 6 June.
 
French actor and director Olivier Py will put on women's clothes for the play "Miss Knife," which he will perform in "Piraeus 260". Py’s play will be presented at this year's festival from 3 to 5 July. German director Thomas Ostermaier will present the theatrical play "An Enemy of the People" by Ibsen in the same cultural space on 9 and 10 July.
  
The Peeping Tom dance company from Belgium will present "À louer" (for rent) – a dance and theatre abstraction of a world in which everything is for rent. The performance of the Belgians can be seen from 12 to 14 June. You can see on 7 and 8 June the performance of dancer and choreographer Lia Haraki "Tune In". On 17 and 18 June, young dancer Elena Alexandriou will perform "One-woman-show" with her play "In the Country of the Victims" (Στην χώρα των θυμάτων).

The theatrical performances in the ancient theatre of Epidaurus are mainly by Greek artists as well as the majority of the art exhibitions. More information is available here.