It’s been many years since Athens and greater Greece experienced the Hellenic Dynasty, but today the city celebrates its ancient history with the annual Hellenic Festival.

The festival, now in its 51st year, offers four months of events, from May through September. The line-up of this year’s Epidaurus Festival runs the gamut from professional stagings of plays like Oedipus and Euripides to performances by renowned artists like ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. Many events do require tickets, which range in price from €2-40. But, installations, exhibits, and some theater workshops are free and open to the public. A few, like the theater workshop on Greek tragedies, require reservations in advance.

For more information, visit the Hellenic Festival’s web site.

Popularity: 9% [?]

We’re big fans of the city-wide all-night party trend in Europe. Paris seems to have come to the party first in October 2002 with its “Nuit Blanche” of performances, gallery openings, monument tours, and late-night shenanigans.

Rome followed the next year, launching “Notte Bianca” with great success. Indeed, according to party planners, the party has become an event the Italian capital “can no longer do without!”

Rome has just announced that “Notte Bianca 2007″ will take place the night of Saturday, September 8th (with some events happening the day before). This year’s show will promote a message of cultural difference and understanding, and will feature hundreds of acts performed by artists all night long throughout the city.

Which kind of events? According to the event’s website:

For Saturday September 8th the programme includes performances, concerts, plays, dance shows, magic and circus arts, contemporary art installations, fireworks, even a concert of church bells, all characterised by tradition and experimentation, merging together for one night an ensemble of artistic capabilities, cultural scope, knowledge, techniques and ways of expressing art and entertainment, all very different one from the other, and that is both multifaceted and harmonious.

We’re there. More information and event schedules: official site.

Meanwhile, Paris has only said that this year’s event will take place in October. For more info, the mayor’s office is already hyping it on their website.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Photo by dapop

France’s annual Fete de la Musique takes place on June 21. It’s one of our favourite festivals, a night-long feast of free live music and dance. This year, if you don’t feel like getting down with the crowds you can follow the whole thing from your computer at www.21juin2007.net, a special 24-hour internet radio broadcast from all over the world, complete with videos. For the first time, New York joins the roster of places (in more than 110 countries!) taking part.

Practical details: A special “Forfait Fete de la Musique” public transportation ticket will be on sale for €2.50, allowing unlimited use of the Ile de France network from Thursday, June 21 at 5 p.m. until Friday, June 22 at 7 a.m.

The program is available on the Fete’s site and it’s massive. In the Ile de France region alone there are 452 scheduled events.

Here are a few suggestions for Paris:

1. M° Republique: Acid house DJ Ken Ishii will be at the helm for a huge open-air dancefest featuring Scratch Massive and Jonathan Katsav in front of the bar Aux Templiers, at 18 rue Caffarelli, 75003. From 6 p.m. until midnight.

2. For those with children, a good bet is the Cite de la Musique in the 19th arrondissement, which will be running concerts and musical workshops for children from 5:30 p.m. through 10 p.m. 221 Ave Jean Jaures, M° Porte de Pantin.

3. M° Menilmontant will host a gypsy festival inspired by the movies of Emir Kusturica.

4. In the 16th, M° Iena, in front of the Musee Guimet, dancers will perform a selection of beloved Bollywood song and dance routines from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Photo by Darklight Festival

The Darklight Festival is Dublin’s premiere festival for filmmakers, animators, and artists. The festival explores work that investigates the intersection of art, film, and technology. This year it will kick off on Friday, June 22, 2007.

In addition to screenings of digital filmmaking, a kids program, a symposium, lectures, workshops, and even virtual activities will round out the festival schedule.

If you are visiting from afar, the festival is happy to recommend hotels near the venues as well as distribute travel information about Dublin. Tickets can be pre-booked, and special student rates will apply if you can produce a valid student identity card when you collect your tickets.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Photo by compujeramey

Forget Cannes: the International Festival of Films Made with Cell Phones is coming to town. Sure, there’s slightly less of a chance of spotting Matt Damon or Bradjolina during this fest. But we’re sure that this Parisian film fest will be just as good as its famous Southern cousin. It’s taking place at the Pompidou Center from June 8 through June 10.

Best part? It’s totally free.

Metro: Hôtel de Ville (lines 1 and 11) or Rambuteau (line 11).

Popularity: 5% [?]

Photo by Floppy Monkey Puppy Love

Try this for some quick math: 4 days + 22 fabulous restaurants = 1 great culinary event.

This year’s Taste of Dublin will be taking over the city’s Iveagh Gardens for a long weekend of fun and food from June 14 - 17, 2007. In addition to offering the chance to taste the delicacies of some of the city’s best restaurants, this year’s event will also host a Chef’s Demonstration Theatre that will feature some of the UK and Ireland’s best loved celebrity chefs including Rachel and Darina Allen, Nevin Maguire and Antony Worrall Thompson.

Tickets can be booked twenty four hours, and group bookings are available.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Johnson Castle will once again showcase the world famous Wexford Opera Festival. The festival begins today and will run through June 17, 2007.

This year’s line-up includes three breathtaking shows: Kurt Weill’s Silverlake, a combined performance of Busoni’s Alrlecchino with Stravinsky’s ballet Pulcinnella, and Dvorak’s Rusalka.

Students are in for a special treat this year, as Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency and radio station Lyric FM have teamed up to sponsor 20 student seats for each performance. Student tickets will sell at the reduced price of only €30. Email boxoffice@wexfordopera.com for more information.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Photo by cicilief

The third annual “Debits de Paroles” festival opens today, May 23, 2007 and continues through June 10, with events happening across the vibrant eastern arrondissements of Paris as well as the Seine Saint Denis. Poetry slammers, storytellers, and poets will be performing in a slew of eclectic venues including cafes, the street, and on certain bus routes.

Artists hail from all over the French-speaking world—Québec, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, and Morocco as well as France. Many performances are free. For example, on Tuesday March 29 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. you can see Lucie Bisson and Hubert Mahela on the 96 bus which runs from Porte des Lilas to the Gare Montparnasse.

Another bus performance has been scheduled for Thursday, May 31, from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m., on the 26 bus which runs from Gare Saint Lazare to the Cours de Vincennes. It’s a great opportunity to sample a French take on the art of slam and also to explore neighborhoods which are off the traditional tourist beat. Among the participating cafes are Living B’Art in the 18th arrondissement, which will function as a festival kiosk with tickets on sale for all performances between noon and 3 p.m. from Wednesday to Saturday.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Photo by SagenVrabel

Attention lovers of the extraordinary! Your world headquarters will soon be set up at Merrion Square Park.

From June 15 through June 17, 2007, this Dublin city center park will play host to the Street Performance World Championship, three days worth of the ordinary, extraordinary, and downright unbelievable. From sword swallowers to bull fighters, this is one competition that will have it all.

Be sure to check out the acts and locate their venues early, as the popular performers are sure to attract a large crowd. And as this is Dublin, remember to bring both your umbrella and your sunglasses—you don’t have to be a fortune teller to know that you’ll probably need both!

Popularity: 6% [?]

The fourth annual Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (DGTF) began yesterday and continues on until May 20, 2007, with 35 productions entertaining audiences at ten venues across downtown Dublin.

This year’s festival presents productions that either have a gay element, theme, or relevance. Theatre troupes from the UK, USA, Canada, Spain, South Africa, and the Ukraine are taking part and Award winning Broadway sensation Rick Skye is making his Dublin debut in the Irish premiere of A Slice O’Minelli, a high energy cabaret set to have audiences rolling in the aisles.

Tickets prices for DGTF events vary. Discounts are available for students, the unemployed, those with disabilities, and senior citizens. But with tickets starting as low as €14, and some events going for free, you won’t have to break the bank to attend.

Popularity: 3% [?]