Concerts, art and photo exhibitions, street art, plays, lectures, “rendez-vous sociaux”, educational programs and chess games will be held on 8-18 October, during the “Little Paris of Athens 2015”festival, co-organized by the Athens Art Network and the Agency of Culture, Sport and Youth of the Municipality of Athens.

“Little Paris of Athens” takes place in the greater central Athens area extending from Karaiskakiand Vathi Squares to Larissa Station. This is an area where several streets bear the names of 19^thcentury French dignitaries sympathetic to the Greek War of Independence (V. Hugo, F-R. de Chateaubriand etc.), hence the name “Little Paris”. It is a district where Athens urban and popular culture meet Greek folklore and cultures of immigrants, travelers and visitors.

At its start, this initiative aimed at bringing cultural and artistic bloom in this deprived part of Athens, evolving gradually into a renowned, multi-faceted cultural event. During 10 days, more than 500 artists, creators and intellectuals will show up at 40 selected locations (streets, squares, stages, music conservatories, schools, art galleries, cafes, bistrots, movie theatres and alternative areas).

“Little Paris of Athens 2013” was dedicated to French writer Albert Camus, on the occasion of the 100^th anniversary of his birth, whereas the second Festival 2014, honouring the 100^th anniversary of World War I outbreak, sought inspiration from the Belle Époque era.

Little Paris of Athens 2015 will focus on “Bistrot et Café Culture”, seeking the artistic creation and expression, as well as intellectual thought that we can still find in warm places like the cafés and the bistrots.

The festival hosts a special feature on the peak of bistrot culture during the “rive gauche” period in post-war liberated Paris, where traditional cafes such as Café de Flore, Lipp and Café des Deux Magots harbored the cultural and artistic revival for more than ten years. A steady flow ofintellectuals, writers, actors, composers, musicians and painters introduced innovative ways of interaction with the active society. For a long time, due to McCarthyism in USA, those meeting places harbored and brought the world jazz scene together with European impressionism, introducing a new wonderful era for Jazz music.

This erstwhile café and bistrot culture gives inspiration to contemporary intellectual and artistic creation that will flood this area of Athens for the third consecutive time.