Protos Orofos (First Floor) is a team that organises concerts focusing on experimental, improvisational and electronic music. Protos Orofos’ activity began in September 2008 and, to date, has hosted over 150 bands and musicians from Europe, North and South America and Asia.

All events in Protos Orofos have free admission, and attendees can bring their own drinks as the venue does not offer a bar. None of the team’s members, as well as the musicians that perform at the events, are paid for their labor. All expenses (transportation costs, equipment maintenance, consumables, etc) are covered exclusively and solely by the free donation box of the venue, as well as by the contributions of the team members. The Protos Orofos team does not accept, and is also opposed to, subsidies and grants from state or private agencies and organizations.

Almost all events take place in an office space on the 1st floor at 20 Olympiou Diamanti, leased and managed by a cooperative, which hosts the activities of the Protos Orofos team free of charge. Some of our members are also members of the cooperative. However, there is no further correlation between the two groups; their operation is independent and distinctly separated (during the musical events, all distinctive elements of the cooperative are removed).

The annual frequency of the events organized by Protos Orofos is low, 5 to 6 gigs per year, with at least a month’s difference between them. For this reason, the selection of bands and musicians is limited and is based on the musical direction set by the respective members of the team, giving priority to bands that have not played in the city of Thessaloniki before.

Protos Orofos does not maintain pages on social media platforms. Events are announced through this website, the newsletter sent via e-mail and through a small number of posters on selected spots around Thessaloniki. Avoiding english as the main language when publicizing the events is a minimum sign of semiotic opposition to the destruction of the city center’s features by their conversion into a tourist and real-estate product.

Every year, the music of the artists who perform at Protos Orofos is presented with the release of a CD-compilation with music tracks of the musicians and bands that played in the course of a calendar year. All these compilation albums are presented on the releases page.