Stefanos Tsitsopoulos
Stefanos Tsitsopoulos is a well-known personality in Thessaloniki’s youth-oriented media, representing the city in the popular newspaper Athens Voice and running the new monthly magazine Soul. «The whole Cultural Capital affair bequeathed on Thessaloniki a great sense of suspicion – a sense that nothing could take root and grow here,» he said. Tsitsopoulos experienced firsthand the enthusiasm of the Biennale, the explosion of the Thessaloniki rock scene. «The city today is hostage to Papageorgopoulos,» he said, adding that the image of a modern, progressive Thessaloniki is to him the flip side of the same coin. «Thessaloniki always displayed a conservative behavior in elections, but the tone was set by the students, the young people and the progressives of the city,» he continued. This is not the case today, he said, though he does see some light at the end of the tunnel. «There are some indications that the city is waking up,» he explained. «Angelakas [the frontman of Trypes] has come back, as has Pavlos Pavlidis of Xylina Spathia… Many new bands are springing up all the time and the graphic arts have become the new rock ‘n’ roll of the city; the wall art is mad. Every Wednesday and Friday the Art House features the city’s best DJs and it is chaos every time. The Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art is looking like it’s standing back on its feet, and the radio is also [sounding] refreshed.»
