An example of a LEADER financed local festival that became a tool to promote cultural heritage and create the conditions necessary for sustainable local development.
Melitzazz Festival started as an initiative to promote the local gastronomy of the Tsakonian region in the Eastern Peloponnese. The success of the LEADER funded festival became a driver for sustainable local development for the area.
Over the years the festival gradually established its identity, enriching its content and selecting different themes each year: ‘Folk songs and dances’ (2010); ‘Exhibition of local products’ (2011); ‘Mediterranean cuisine’, ‘Musical adaptations’ (2012); ‘Tsakonian carpets’, ‘Melitzazz junior’ (2013); ‘Cine-Melitzazz’ (2014); ‘Jazz Liquor - Entering old mansions of Leonidio’ (2015); ‘On the road’, ‘Child climbing wall’ (2016); ‘Loving Melitzazz’ (as in Loving Vincent), (2017); ‘Labyrinth dance’ (2018).
The Melitzazz strategy has helped to:
In 2018 approximately 6 000 people attended the festival.