The uproar that erupted with the erection of the monstrous temporary structure in front of the Zappeion led to the hasty cancellation of the whole festival project. As Nikos Vatopoulos rightly wrote in Kathimerini, “it is a Festival that no one will miss.” An awkward announcement from the Committee of the Olympian & Zappeion Legacy tried to patch up the fiasco, while all other bodies, the Municipality of Athens, Ministries, etc, washed their hands. One is reminded of the well-known English proverb: failure is an orphan, while success has many fathers.

All’s well that ends well then? It is certainly positive that this is one of the few times that the Greek “Civil Society” reacted and achieved a small victory. On the other hand, as Summer has just begun, we don’t know what else might come up. Here in the Athens area or in any other part of Greece, there are many banana peels that can be stepped on…

The incident shows two of the deepest and perennial problems of Greek reality, and I don’t know which one is more serious. The first is the lack of respect for public space. Anyone can use it as they see fit, as long as they can do it. This starts from our everyday basic level: anyone can throw their trash wherever it suits them without consequences.

In the case of the Festival, the Committee had legal authority. In many other cases, however, some body, group, political party, or “collectivity” will do whatever they please, fully confident that there will be no consequences. An extreme example is the banner that was hung from the Acropolis Rock a few years ago by the Greek Communist Party “activists”. Obviously, nothing happened afterwards.

The second problem is that we don’t really know what we expect from Culture. The only area for which there is an opinion and possibly broad social consensus is in the management of our Ancient Heritage, which is something that has slowly emerged over the years.

Some public and private bodies, such as the Greek National Opera, the Athens State Orchestra, the Niarchos Foundation, etc., have their own coherent policy in their respective fields. On the level of Central Government, as a society in general or as a Political System, there is nothing.

I don’t want to be misunderstood! I am not advocating for Soviet-style solutions with central planning. However, there is a big difference between this point and the current “anything goes” situation. The State can draw up a general framework and take measures to encourage organizations and individuals respond.

One thing is certain: Cultural Policy cannot be done with easy and superficial high-profile events in already saturated places, located in large cities or popular destinations. It is made with slow and persistent work in many different ways and spread over time.

But this is where it gets difficult…