Thessaloniki Fair 2026: Opening the 90th International Exhibition

The 90th International Exhibition of Thessaloniki opens its gates on Saturday, September 5, 2026, and will run through Sunday, September 13, covering a total of nine days, according to a publication by ERT. The honored country of this year’s exhibition is Japan, a choice that, according to the same publication, is expected to give special character to this year’s fair program. The Thessaloniki Fair this year coincides with the 100th anniversary of its founding, an milestone that, as ERT notes, adds additional symbolic weight to the 2026 exhibition. The fair is traditionally one of the largest trade and economic presentation institutions in the country, with a history starting a century ago and continuing this year in Thessaloniki.

According to ERT, more than 1,000 exhibitors and more than 200,000 visitors are expected during the nine days of the fair’s operation. The program includes, among other things, 7 musical events, which, according to the publication, are part of the broader cultural component of the exhibition. In parallel, more than 400 B2B business meetings are scheduled, an element that underscores the commercial importance attributed to the fair this year by businesses and organizations. These figures, as recorded by ERT, place this year’s exhibition among the largest of recent years, both in number of exhibitors and in expected public attendance.

The Thessaloniki Fair is traditionally also the occasion for economic policy announcements by the Prime Minister, a practice that has been established in recent years within the framework of the exhibition, although the content of this year’s interventions has not yet been announced. Parallel to this, the exhibition is accompanied each year by special traffic regulations in Thessaloniki due to increased attendance at the exhibition space and in the city center during the nine days of the fair’s operation.

This year’s exhibition, which marks a century of the Thessaloniki Fair’s operation, is expected to attract the interest of businesses and visitors from Greece and abroad, with Japan at the center as the honored country. The exhibition is also a steady starting point for discussions about the state of the Greek economy, as it brings together every year representatives of businesses, institutions, and organizations from across the country. The 100-year anniversary of the Thessaloniki Fair’s founding adds an additional dimension to this year’s exhibition, which, according to ERT, will host exhibitors, visitors, and events until its conclusion on Sunday, September 13. The evolution of the institution, from its first organization a hundred years ago to this year’s 90th exhibition, is recorded by ERT as an indication of the steady presence of the Thessaloniki Fair on the commercial and social map of Thessaloniki.