Every year Thessaloniki hosts a European festival of bell bearers, a celebration of traditional Greek and Balkan customs.

Public lined the streets on March 8 to watch dramatic performances believed to help protect farmers' herds and crops.

The groups begin at the White Tower, the most well-known monument of Thessaloniki, and arrive at Aristotle Square through the Seaside Boulevard.

There, for 15 minutes, every group presents its customs with dances and music.

The entire city trembles from the impressive rhythm of the bells while citizens and visitors alike are carried away and excited by the phantasmagorical sight of the bell-bearers, the variety of masquerades, and the loud intensity of bells clanging simultaneously.

Every year the city of Thessaloniki hosts the European Festival of the Meeting of traditional bell-bearers. During this terrific celebration the bell-bearing customs of Greece, the Balkans and other European countries are presented to the wide public while attempting to explore the customs of bell bearing. These are seasonal events of masquerade with eugenic and salutary meaning i.e. dramatic performances that agrarian and pastoral communities developed, believing that they will protect their herds and crops.

The groups begin at the White Tower, the most well-known monument of Thessaloniki, and arrive at Aristotle Square through the Seaside Boulevard. There, for 15 minutes, every group presents its customs with dances and music. The entire city literally trembles from the impressive rhythm of the bells while citizens and visitors alike are carried away and excited by the phantasmagorical sight of the bell-bearers, the variety of masquerades, the loud intensity of bells clanging simultaneously, but basically from the passion, the intensity, and the momentum of hundreds of bell-bearers which inundate Thessaloniki.

All the activities of the Festival have as an axis to link the tradition of bell-wearing in Greece with similar ones in Europe, and also to constitute a source of inspiration to the current artists to approach the custom of the bell-bearers in their art and with their creative eye.