Up where Greece meets her Balkan neighbours, in the area surrounding the two Prespes lakes, the regions annual cultural festival has just been included in the Cultural Olympiad's programme. Specifically, Prespes 2002 makes part of the Cultural Olympiad's The New Balkans section, which aims to promote the shared approaches and concerns of the people of the Balkan peninsula.

Already a cultural institution, the Prespes festival, now in its twelfth year, acts as the suitable meeting place to promote the Balkan face of Greece in light of 2004. Music will act as the main fare with the festival hosting six musical nights featuring some of Greece's top-notch names accompanied by Balkan colleagues. Events will unfold in both Greece and the neighbouring countries.

MP Yorgos Lianis (nicknamed "the soul of the festival") stresses that the idea of staging a cultural festival in Prespes 12 years ago was inspired by "the desire to show that Greece doesn't end, but rather starts in Prespes". "The inclusion of the festival under the auspices of the Cultural Olympiad" stresses Lianis "is an act of trust and faith by [culture minister] Evangelos Venizelos at Greece's borders."

Moreover, the act is especially significant because of the unique nature of the Prespes themselves: the area surrounding the lakes has been declared a Ramsar Protected Site by the countries in whose jurisdiction it lies. Greece, FYROM and Albania joined forces in 2000 to declare Prespes Park the first trans-boundary protected area in Southeastern Europe.

Idiosyncratic songwriter Dionyssis Savvopoulos is especially interested in the cross-cultural aspect of the festival; his gig will feature Mode Plagal, Greece's premier jazz group, as well as Bulgarians, Turks, Romanians, Albanians and Yugoslavians. Said Savvopoulos: "We know the third rate American and English pop stars but we dont know the top musicians in the Balkans."

Programme of events
On August 23, on the tiny island of Agios (or Saint) Achillios on Lake Mikri Prespa (the smaller of the two lakes shared by Greece and Albania), Savvopoulos will present his work entitled "This is the Balkans" (especially conceived for this year's festival) together with artists from five Balkan nations, each singing in their native tongue.

On the preceding night, the town of Florina will host songwriter Lavrendis Macheritsas together with Italian colleague Angelo Branduardi. On August 24, a special tribute to poet/lyricist Lefteris Papadopoulos - with singing by George Dalaras, Haris Alexiou, Yannis Kotsiras and Dimitris Bassis and poetry reading by actresses Pemy Zouni and Christina Theodoropoulou - will take place in Prespes.

The day after, composer Thanos Mikroutsikos with the Patras Philharmonic Orchestra will perform a concert in the small town of Petres, while the 26th of August brings in Meliti a night of folk clarinet improvisations featuring Greeks Petroloukas Halkias, Yorgos Mangas and "the soul king of the Balkans", gypsy Ferush Mustafov from FYROM. Prespes 2002 wraps up in Florina with a concert of composer Stamatis Kraounakis featuring singers Dimitra Papiou, Costas Makedonas and Kraounakis music-theatre troupe Speira-Speira.

Discussing the Balkans
The Balkan focus of the festival is further highlighted via two conferences on Greek Revolution idealist Rigas Phereos. "Chart of Rigas Phereos: Women's Writing in the Balkans", held in Prespes, and "Rigas Phereos: Prophet and Visionary", staged in Belgrade, (where Phereos was assassinated by Ottoman authorities in 1798) will showcase aspects of his ambitious plan of a pan-Balkan revolt against the Ottoman Turks.