The Greek Festival 2012 shows symptoms of total chaos, despite the fact that by this time of the year every arrangement should have already been made by the authorities. Several questions remain unanswered, as to which events, which bands, and which artists are to be presented, what kind of shows are going to take place, what the budget is, and so forth.
According to the Greek newspaper “To Vima”, there has not been a single official announcement as to the state subsidy for the Greek Festival 2012. There have been some unofficial sayings that are not to be taken into serious consideration, since there has been no publicly made statement by the Greek government.
Without a proper bugdet, there cannot be a succesful project. The corresponding Ministry proposed the inclusion of a number of events in the NSRF Programme of Attica, so that they can be financed by European funds, but there was no actual effort to that end.
The festival totally depends on the state subsidy for financial support and without it, it would not be able to take place, since the profits from the event could not cover its enormous cost. The Greek Festival received, for example, a state subsidy of 3.671.600 Euros from the state bugdet, 5.211.711 from the casinos (given according to Greek law) and 377.965 from other sources. The income from the ticket sales was as high as 4.582.951 Euros, while the cost of the events amounted to 10.000.297 Euros. That suggests there was a deviation of 5.417.346 Euros.
Story by Helena Apostolaki
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