Eyecatchers as Mikhail Gorbachev and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to draw millions of visitors to Spain this spring and summer by their 450 performances and lectures

Runners, swimmers and jumpers may be flocking to Athens this summer, but Barcelona is hosting a different kind of Olympics - a five-month cultural and intellectual forum on solving the world\'s problems.

Organizers say they expect more than five million visitors to converge on this Mediterranean and former Olympic city starting May 9 for the 2004 Forum of Cultures - part festival, part meeting-of-minds on broad themes like peace, cultural diversity and sustainable development.

For Barcelona it\'s a chance to recover the international limelight it basked in back in 1992 when it hosted the Olympics - not to mention rake in tourist dollars and give itself a long-overdue facelift.

For visitors it means dozens of conferences and cultural exhibits, 450 concerts by performers like Bob Dylan and Sting, plays, dance shows and speeches by guests such as former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

It\'s like a "cultural Olympics," said Forum spokesman Oleguer Sarsenadas. "We hope the Forum will be an international event on par with the Olympics or the World Expo, only we\'re bringing together individuals, not countries."

The city and regional governments and private investors have spent billions transforming Barcelona\'s northern shore in preparation for the forum, which runs through Sept. 26. "Everything works toward the Forum\'s goal of finding new models of dealing with the world\'s problems," Sarsenadas said.

Sourced by msnbc.msn.com