The festival will take place from the 11th until the 12th of May 2023 in the Little Early Christian Basilica as a festival center, but its activities will cover a number of other historical and cultural spaces in Plovdiv. The festival includes: poetry readings, poetry competition, cultural and educational seminar, writers’ forum and exploratory trips. The fifth edition of the festival gathers together poets from the Russia, Turkey, Italy, Croatia, Georgia, India, North Macedonia and Bulgaria.

The sixth edition of the International Festival of Poetry ORPHEUS started with a ceremony of awarding the Doctor Honoris Causa. The event is at 17.30, 10 May, in the 7th Auditorium of Paisii Hilendarski University (Rectorate). A bilingual book of poems by Robert Meshi and Plovdiv poet Tillo Tilev, just published in Tbilisi, will be promoted.

On Thursday, May 11, at 6 pm in the Small Early Christian Basilica of Philippopolis is the official opening of the International Festival of Poetry ORPHEUS with the participation of 10 poets from 8 countries. It will be a reading of poetry in the native language of each of the participants and translation into Bulgarian. A special video message to the festival with gratitude for Bulgarian support for Ukraine - from Ukrainian poet Yulia Berezhko-Kaminska.

On Friday, May 12, at 5 pm, again in the Small Early Christian Basilica of Philippopolis, a writers' forum Ars poetica will take place - a conversation about poetic art and Orphism between the festival participants and students from humanities high schools and students from P. Hilendarski. Immediately afterwards, at 6 p.m., is the award ceremony of the sixth edition of the festival and the final reading.

This year the Orpheus Grand Prize for outstanding achievements in poetry goes to the Plovdiv poet Yordan Velchev. Who are the other winners - on Friday, 6 pm, the Small Early Christian Basilica of Philippopolis.

All events have free admission, and the festival's multilingual editions will be handed out on site.

The Orpheus Project – PLOVDIV 2023 is implemented with the financial support of the Municipality of Plovdiv – Directorate “Culture and Archeology” and is a part of the Cultural Calendar of the Municipality for 2023.