Athens Ushers in Carnival Season 2020 with Color and Song

Athens is ready to welcome the carnival season with plenty of song, dance, and fun that will run for two weeks through to March 2.

The #CarnivalinAthens festivities, organized by the City of Athens Culture, Sports and Youth Organization (OPANDA) and the Athens Technopolis, begin on February 15 with over 60 free events and happenings for young and old held at city squares, parks, and neigborhoods for 17 days.

Once again, the city will revive past carnival traditions and will also include concerts, masquerade parties, parades, performances, treasure hunts, dances, educational events, mask-making workshops and lots of percussion to set the rhythm.

For the kiddies, the Grand Carnival Children’s Celebration at Zappeio Park on February 23 brings jugglers, dancers, magicians and stilts men to the stage.

This year’s Tsiknopempti (or Smoky Thursday) celebrations – marking the last meat-eating day before Lent – kick off from Syntagma Square at 11am on February 20 and move to the Varvakeios Meat Market with a Greek music concert to be followed by a carnival procession from the Angeliki Hatzimichali Museum of Folk Art and Tradition in Plaka.

Clean Monday events will take place over the last weekend of February around the Acropolis in the Plaka, Monastiraki, and Thissio neighborhoods with open-air music festivals featuring popular Greek performers.

Carnival 2020 festivities culminate on Clean Monday (March 2) with the traditional kite flying atop Filopappou Hill  to the accompaniment of traditional Greek music and the customary “lagana” flat bread.

Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis invites visitors and residents, young and old, to join in the fun, adding that this year’s “Apokries” (Carnival) offer everyone the chance to let loose and have some fun.

More #CarnivalinAthens info here.