Athens City Festival this Week Features Music Events, Treasure Hunts, Museum Visits

Piano City Athens. Photo source: This is Athens City Festival

The Greek capital continues to celebrate spring with the 3rd This is Athens – City Festival, presenting a diverse program of events and activities, all with free admission.

Throughout the weekend, the festival featured guided tours, book readings, and outdoor parties, showcasing the iconic landmarks of Athens.

As we move into the week, those eager to experience Athens’ vibrant atmosphere can join music events celebrating both Greek and foreign traditions, participate in treasure hunts, and explore museums ahead of International Museum Day on May 18th.

What’s on this week

National Historical Museum. Photo source: This is Athens City Festival

This week will feature a variety of entertainment events, welcoming both residents and visitors to explore some of the city’s most significant locations. It should be noted that many of the activities listed below will be conducted exclusively in Greek.

Tuesday, May 14

Andreas Polyzogopoulos & Maria-Christina Harper: Into the Fairyland. Photo source: This is Athens City Festival

– Fairytales at the Square: Stelios Pelasgos, Kalliga Square, 7 pm: For 1 hour, Stelios Pelasgos will perform storytelling with traditional tales from Greece and Northern Europe, speaking for the importance of brotherly love.

– Andreas Polyzogopoulos & Maria-Christina Harper: Into the Fairyland, Athens University History Museum, 8 pm: Polyzogopoulos and Harper will share their musical experience with a performance based on the stories about elves and fairies.

Wednesday, May 15

Food & Wine Museum Sessions: EMST. Photo source: This is Athens City Festival

– Food & Wine Museum Sessions: EMST, National Museum of Contemporary Art: Starting on 8 pm, the curators of the museum will guide participants through the main works of the exhibition titled “What if women ruled the world?” which focuses on the art of winemaking and women’s artistic creation.

– Art as a Way for the Elevation of the Human: George Panagiotopoulos & De Profundis Ensemble, Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, 7.30 pm: Α musical performance with compositions by A. Corelli, του J. S. Bach, του A. Vivaldi, and G. P. Telemann.

– Lubomyr Melnyk live at the Roman Agora of Athens, 8 pm: Ukrainian pianist Lubomyr Melnyk will demonstrate his talent and mastery through highlights of his career in a concert overlooking the Acropolis.

Thursday, May 16

Athens Digital Arts Festival. Photo source: This is Athens City Festival

– From Earth to Sky, National Observatory of Athens, 7 pm: During this tour of the Observatory, participants will walk the Western Hills of the Acropolis and take a look at the night sky from the Doridis telescope. In addition, a modern replica of the famous Antikythera Mechanism, the world’s oldest computer, will be showcased at the tour.

– A tour through the exhibition “From Greater… to Contemporary Greece: The Refugees,” National Historical Museum, 5 pm:The exhibition presents the refugee movement through the stories that occupy the people forced to leave their ancestral homes. Photographs, historical documents, testimonies, videos, and objects from the museum’s collections and collaborating institutions will be the main artifacts of the exhibition.

– Piano City Athens, Amerikis Square, 5 pm to 7.30 pm:Piano recital with acclaimed artists and rising stars, as well as students playing piano in the parks, squares, streets, museums, hospitals, conservatories, schools, and homes all over Athens.

– 20th Athens Digital Arts Festival, Dikaiosinis Square: In its 20th edition, the Athens Digital Arts Festival will transform the former Santaroza Courthouse and Dikaiosinis Square into a live scene of artistic expression and technological innovation. From May 16 to 26, this year’s event honors the rich history of digital art while focusing on the future of digital culture.

Friday, May 17

Thematic guided tour of the B&E Goulandris Foundation permanent Collection. Photo source: This is Athens City Festival

– Portrait: The depiction of the face, National Gallery, 11 am: The different needs of artists and historical figures to keep the painting form alive throughout the centuries will be at the heart of the thematic tour. The tour will lead art lovers through El Greco paintings, the faces of heroes of the 1821 revolution, and significant artworks of the 20th century.

– Street Art Treasure Hunt alongside Loukanikos, the sausage dog, and Monastiraki Square, 5.50pm to 8 pm:The Narratologies team is organizing a hybrid game based on the unique Athens Street Art scene. The hunt will follow pawprints of Loukanikos, a beloved Athenian dog, on a one-of-a-kind street art-themed treasure hunt throughout Athens.

– Thematic guided tour of the B&E Goulandris Foundation permanent collection, Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, 6:45 pm to 8 pm:Under the name “Women in the Collection of the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation,” the guided tour will display works of artists such as Marc Chagall, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, Auguste Rodin, and Camille Claudel.

– Kaniggos Street Party, Kaniggos Square, 6 pm to 11 pm: An outdoor party at one of the most famous squares of the city with electronic dance music revealing the power of unity played by the renowned DJ George Apergis.

Saturday, May 18

En Lefko Spring Party. Photo source: This is Athens City Festival

– Guided Tour: From Letters to History, Epigraphic Museum, 10 am to 12 pm: Held on the occasion of International Museum Day, the guided tour will be conducted by the museum’s archaeologists, who will present selected inscriptions from the museum’s collection. The tour will be available for adults and teenagers over 15 years old.

– Athens History Walks: The Makrygianni Battle, Zappeion Megaron, 11 am: This historical walk will unveil one of the most important battles of the Dekemvriana, the urban warfare that took place in Athens at the end of World War II and which caused the start of the Greek Civil War (1946–49). After the end of the walk, rare photographs from the battles will be featured at the Zappeion Gardens.

– En Lefko Spring Party, Athens Conservatoire, 8 pm: Amazing venues, impressive staging, famous radio DJs, and thousands of people dancing all day will make this one of the largest parties of the festival.

Sunday, May 19

The Panigyri of Athens. Photo source: This is Athens City Festival

– Lycabettus walking tour, Holy Church of Saint Dionysios, 10 am to 12.30 pm: The tour will start from Agios Dionysios in Kolonaki and walking through the small streets under Lycabettus Hill will end up to the small church of Saint George.

– Discovering the Protestant section of the Athens Cemetery, First Cemetery of Athens, 10.45 pm to 1 pm: Archaeologist Michalis Giochalas will lead a tour of the Protestant Cemetery outside the First Cemetery of Athens. There some of the oldest works of modern Greek funerary art are present, including monuments to intellectuals, scientists, heroes that joined the city’s large outdoor sculpture gallery.

– Dance & Movement Workshop for teenagers, Fokianos Sports Park, 1 pm to 3 pm: The 4+ENA team is inviting teenagers from 13-18 years old, with or without previous dance experience, to take part in a motion workshop based on the elements of nature.

– The Panigyri of Athens, Plato’s Academy Park, 6 pm: The Panigyri of Athens will be a journey through the authentic festivals of Greece and traditional music played with fun, passion, and respect for the past.

Organized by the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency (ADDMA), the festival features over 250 events that will run until June 2.

More information on the This is Athens—City Festival 2024 program of events are available here: https://cityfestival.thisisathens.org/en/home/