From 27 to 30 August 2026, Prespa will once again come alive with four days of music and cultural events. This year’s programme features concerts, international artists, new collaborations, and performances at some of the region’s most remarkable locations across Greece and Albania

Artists from across the world will take part in this year’s edition, with collaborations involving Albania, North Macedonia, Brazil, Germany, Belgium, and Chile. The festival also begins a new partnership with the Athens Municipality Symphony Orchestra as part of the twinning agreement between the Municipalities of Prespa and Athens

This year’s events will take place throughout the Prespa region, including Mikrolimni, Agios Germanos, Psarades, Agios Achilleios, Daseri, Lemos, Moschochori, Pustec (Albania), and other locations. The four-day programme includes concerts and parallel events centred on contemporary classical music and traditional Balkan musical traditions.

This year also marks the presentation of the festival’s first internationally commissioned contemporary music work, created especially for TRIETHNÉS and receiving its world premiere on Thursday, 27 August.

The festival’s educational programme also continues with the second edition of the PRESPENSIS Academy of Contemporary Music Creation, organised in collaboration with the University of Macedonia, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and the Music Schools of Kastoria, Ptolemaida, and Amyntaio.

Concert Programme

On the afternoon of Thursday, 27 August, the festival opens at the old schoolhouse in the village of Daseri with a concert performance inspired by the lullabies of the wider Prespa region. Greek, Albanian, and Macedonian-language lullabies, together with songs from the Prespa diaspora, are woven into a new work for cello and electronics that explores memory, the maternal voice, and cultural coexistence along the Balkan borderlands. The performance features traditional singer Natasa Tsakiridou and soprano Marianna Nomikou.

Later that evening, in the central square of Psarades, internationally acclaimed Brazilian pianist Paulo Álvares joins the polyphonic ensemble Farserotes, perhaps the last remaining authentic Vlach polyphonic ensemble in the world, from Drenovë, Albania. Contemporary improvised music meets the polyphonic traditions of the Vlachs and the wider Albanian musical heritage.

On Friday, 28 August, the festival moves to the Byzantine Collection in Agios Germanos. Under the moonlit sky and marking the 75th anniversary of the death of Arnold Schoenberg, the festival presents his landmark work Pierrot Lunaire in a semi-staged concert performance. Schoenberg’s music is placed in dialogue with traditional songs connected to Carnival, the moon, and the idea of homecoming. Acclaimed baritone Georgios Iatrou appears in the role of Pierrot, while the five-member ensemble is conducted by Yorgos Ziavras. Costumes are designed by Ioanna Tsami.

On the afternoon of Saturday, 29 August, the former quarry of Mikrolimni once again becomes the setting for the large-scale production FOUR SEASONS / perpetuum mobile. Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, reimagined in Max Richter’s minimalist version, is performed by the Athens Municipality Symphony Orchestra alongside actors and local performers from Prespa. The production explores the changing seasons through the annual bean harvest, one of the region’s defining traditions. It is directed by Panos Zygouros, conducted by Yorgos Ziavras, and features Katerina Chatzinikolaou, Concertmaster of the Athens State Orchestra, as violin soloist.

On Sunday, 30 August, the festival begins early at the Pelekanos Bean Cooperative Packing House in Lemos. In the afternoon, the second PRESPENSIS Academy of Contemporary Music Creation presents new compositions commissioned by the festival and the Academy for 2026. The programme features works by student composers Christos Papadopoulos, Dimitris Partalopoulos, Dimitris Sintos, and Dimitra Vaka. The ensembles bring together university students and school pupils from the Greek Traditional Music, European Music, and Contemporary Music departments of the University of Macedonia, students from the School of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and pupils from the Music Schools of Amyntaio, Kastoria, and Ptolemaida. Participation is offered free of charge thanks to the generous support of the Ioannis F. Kostopoulos Foundation.

On Sunday evening, the packing house is transformed into a vibrant celebration of music and community. The band Aidonia tis Florinas, together with traditional singers Natasa Tsakiridou and Maria Davka, present a festive performance where traditional Balkan music meets techno and Balkan beats in a unique hybrid musical set.

Visual Arts Exhibition: Agios Achilleios – Edge of the Beginning

From 1 August and for two months, the island of Agios Achilleios becomes an open-air exhibition of contemporary art, featuring works by ten artists from Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia, alongside a collective installation by students of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Western Macedonia under the supervision of Professor Haris Kontosfyris.

Visitors to Prespa are invited to explore the island through artworks created especially for this year’s festival theme, Return to the Beginning. Installations and site-specific interventions placed throughout the landscape create an immersive route that reflects on memory, place, and the idea of return.

Using a dedicated mobile application, visitors follow a circular walking route around the island, where the ideas of beginning and ending continually overlap, turning the journey itself into an experience of transition and renewal.

Surrounding the Basilica of Agios Achilleios, Chilean composer Pablo Garreton presents a newly commissioned sound installation that combines artificial intelligence technologies with recordings from Prespa’s natural environment and everyday human activity.

Running continuously from 27 to 30 August, the low-volume, multi-channel sound installation transforms the area around the basilica into a space for listening, reflection, and quiet exploration.

NOMAD PRESPA Programme

This year, the festival introduces a “festival within the festival” with the launch of NOMAD PRESPA, a new programme inspired by the historic journeys and the continuous cycles of life around the Prespa Lakes. The initiative brings the idea of movement back to the centre of the cultural experience, reflecting the region’s long history of migration, exchange, and coexistence. PRESPA [Νομαδική Πρέσπα], εμπνευσμένη από τις ιστορικές μετακινήσεις και τη διαρκή κυκλικότητα της ζωής γύρω από τη λίμνη των Πρεσπών. Η νέα αυτή δράση επιχειρεί να επαναφέρει την έννοια της μετακίνησης ως αναπόσπαστο στοιχείο της πολιτιστικής εμπειρίας.

For its 2026 edition, NOMAD PRESPA welcomes back percussionist Panagiotis Ziavras and performer Myrgon, following the success of their performance at last year’s festival. They return with a new two-part project. The first performance will take place on Thursday, 27 August, at Agios Dimitrios in Moschochori, followed by a second performance on Friday, 28 August, in Pustec, Albania, in collaboration with the Municipality of Pustec. The event marks the festival’s first official collaboration with Albania and further strengthens its cross-border identity.

Combining sound, movement, ritual elements, and improvisation, the two artists create an immersive walking performance that symbolically follows the paths travelled by the people of Prespa over the centuries.

Parallel Activities

The festival’s parallel events also return this year, beginning with an open Prespa bean cooking workshop on the morning of Saturday, 29 August, in the courtyard of the Prespa Town Hall in Lemos.

Local residents and visitors come together around large cooking pots to prepare traditional Prespa beans and roasted peppers in a shared celebration of the region’s culinary heritage. Surrounded by music, aromas, and spontaneous dancing, the gathering becomes a lively community feast where everyday local traditions become an integral part of the festival experience.

On the morning of Sunday, 30 August, flautist Zacharias Tarpagkos invites audiences on a musical walking journey from the village of Psarades to Cape Roti, one of the most striking viewpoints overlooking Great Prespa Lake.

Accompanied by the sound of the flute and the remarkable landscape where the borders of Greece, Albania, and North Macedonia meet, the walk becomes an immersive experience that connects participants with the landscape, its silence, and the unique geography of the region. Music unfolds naturally along the route, following the rhythm of the walk and creating moments of reflection and shared listening at the meeting point of three countries and countless stories.