Naxos Festival is a comprehensive artistic platform that processes, curates, creates and promotes the most significant cultural activities staged in Naxos during the summer months. Visual arts, theater, music, contemporary dance, and literature make up the foremost cultural celebration of the island and the Cyclades, a point of reference for similar events across the country, and a strong driver of the development of cultural tourism in Naxos.
Over the course of its 24-year lifespan, the festival has maintained a constant orientation towards quality and high-value artistic outcome, featuring selected collaborations with distinguished representatives from the entire spectrum of the arts, as well as with prominent cultural institutions in Greece and abroad. Constantly aiming for the entertainment, aesthetic pleasure and spiritual uplift of its audience, the festival’s program is addressed to both locals and international summer visitors, with no discrimination, exclusion, or other accessibility restriction.
The Festival’s activities take place in historical sites and venues that embrace, inspire and highlight people and events.
Naxos Festival 2024 is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of Lithuania in Greece.
VISUAL ARTS – MUSIC – THEATRE
“Phosphorus & Hesperus – Dialogue”
Artworks and in situ installations by two major Lithuanian artists: Saulius Valius and Diana Radavichute.
The title of the exhibition reveals the thread of artistic inspiration.
Guided by Greek mythology, the artists from the European North will employ their respective means of expression to acclimate to the Cycladic landscape and interact with the works of German-born Naxian artist Klaus Pfeiffer, a heritage already in place at the historical site of the Bazeos Tower, where the exhibition will be hosted for four months.
The duration of the exhibition marks the period of the Festival, 8 June to 6 October 2024, covering the entire summer season and staged under the auspices and with the support of the Embassy of Lithuania in Greece.
Curators: Britta Breuers – Mario Vazaios
Venue: Bazeos Tower, Naxos
Duration: 8 June — 6 October 2024, open daily except Mondays
Fr. 21/6 | 20.00
Professor Emeritus of the University of Athens Maria Efthymiou will talk about the “Key Points in the History of Hellenism.”
Sun. 28/7 |21.30 |“HIKARU 輝 ray of light”
A site-specific performance, an installation that transforms, changes and transmutes… is never the same. Just like nature, just like us, just like everything around us.
Hikaru is Japanese for ray of light, and symbolizes that particular ray that illuminates our path in the dark, nourishes our spirit, signifies nontime, nonplace, the peace that is there to reconcile us with all that torments us.
Concept: Anastasia Parava, Damiano Privitera. Original text: Alexandros Mistriotis. Electro-acoustic sound, soundscapes: Éliane Radigue. Music: Arvo Pärt, Joesef.
Movement, shadow animation, lights, narration: Anastasia Parava
Wed. 24/7 | 21.30 |
Yannis Zevgolis: violin – Achilleas Persidis: lute, guitar – “Through Sound and Time”
Two exceptional artists in a performance of orchestral compositions that mark each one’s special trajectory through sound and time. Yannis Zevgolis and Achilleas Persidis join their distinct musical identities in a sound defined by geography and improvisation that abides by form, by solid melody. It was the decision of both to interpret the specific compositions in the simplest and, thus, the most exposed way: the duet.
Tue. 30/7 |21.30
Pantelis Thalassinos – Manolis Androulidakis – “2 Guitars – 2 Voices”
Beloved songwriter Pantelis Thalassinos collaborates with notable composer and guitarist Manolis Androulidakis, in a program featuring tracks from their personal discography as well as songs by great Greek musicians such as M. Theodorakis, M. Hadjidakis, M. Loizos, et al.
Tue. 6/8 |21.30|
Stefanos Korkolis – Sofia Manousaki – “Singing Our Poets”
The internationally renowned composer and pianist, joined by the exceptional singer Sofia Manousaki, take us on a journey through the magical world of poetry set to music. Fetured are compositions by great Greek composers (Theodorakis, Hadjidakis, Mikroutsikos, Lagios, Spanos, et al.), as well as poems by C. P. Cavafy, O. Elytis, G. Seferis set to music by S. Korkolis (in their world debut).
A musical program with poems-turned-songs.
Th.8/8 &Fr.9/8|21.30|
The “War of the Romantics” – piano recital
The artistic divide among composers of the Romanticera, a discord with powerful social implications,is highlighted in this rare piano recital by internationally acclaimed pianist George-Emmanuel Lazaridis, combined with an original physical co-interpretation by choreographer Theano Ksidia and dancer Natalia Baka. The performance attempts to take the audience on a journey through the mid-nineteenth century, revolving around the schism between the musical aesthetics of Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt.
In this context, the recital will feature two iconic works of the piano repertoire, the four Ballades by Brahms and the Piano Sonata in B minor by Liszt, which echo two completely different, possibly conflicting, musical approaches that played a key role in the subsequent evolution of music.
The production is staged in the context of the 2024 program of the Ministry of Culture and Sports“All of Greece, One Culture.” The event is offered free of charge by the Ministry of Culture. Pre-booking is compulsory. Information & pre-booking: www.allofgreeceoneculture.gr
Sun. 11/8 | 21.30|
“Passionate dialogues for violin and piano”
Featuring two talented young musicians: Nefeli Mousoura, piano, and Thomas Lefort, violin.
The program includes some of the most popular pieces of the Romantic repertoire, including Franck’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, while the second part consists of works by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, featuring tunes of Spanish folklore and the masterful piece of gypsy influences La Zingaresca.
Co-produced by South Aegean Region & Naxos Festival. Free admission.
Tu. 13/8 |21.30|“The old women gathering the nettle”
The show of the Experimental Stage of the Thessalian Theatre taps into the secret stories of Thessaly women from the 19th and 20th centuries, in a staging approach that focuses on the social roles and gender dimensions of magical-religious practices. At the heart of the performance lies the elderly female body and its connection to folk magic, cooking and ritual practices. Three female characters, interpreted by three young male bodies, who go through life in the shadow of the predominantly male state power, converse between the familiar and the archetypal, the harmless “grandmother” and the dangerous healer; they talk about their lives, about what they’ve learned from their elder, what they suffered as women, and what they are handing down to the next generation.
Research, dramaturgy, direction: Konstantinos Ntellas
Performers: Manousos Georgopoulos, George Platon Perleros, Giannis Sanidas. Soundscape, original music: Alexandros Ktistakis
Th. 15/8 |21.30|
Yannis Zevgolis – “With Violins and Tsambounes”
The renowned musician and violin virtuoso takes us on a journey through the rhythms of the Aegean islands and the coasts of Asia Minor, with instruments and sounds that echo an authentic traditional folk festival. The concert-celebration is organized on the evening of 15 August, highlighting local sounds as pure they used to be, before folk festivals lost their authenticity to the commercialization of entertainment and electric sound.
Yannis Zevgolis violin – Dionysia Papouli voice, percussion – Matthaios Zevgolis lute, voice – Kostas Siderislute – Giannis Antoniou (Fysalis) tsambouna – Manolis Vasilas (Palios) doumbaki
Wed. 21/8|21.30|Maria Papageorgiou – Live
Thanks to her 10-year-old solo discography, as well as her ability to “reread” old favorite songs through a broader sense of musicality and her collaboration with prominent artists of Greek and international discography, Maria creates a rare soundscape in which decades, languages, songwriters and their stories are intertwined.
She is accompanied by musicians: Euripides Zemenidis – guitars. Yorgos Danis – double bass. Weronika Kijewska – cello.
Sa. 24/8 |21.30|Nikos Antonopoulos -“Blue Thread”
Nikos Antonopoulos with guitar, voice and electronics, presents traditional Greek music with a modern approach, combining the analog past with the digital era.
Sun. 1/9 |21.30 |
Josep Tero – “Paul Valéry-Cavafy”
A recital-concert, in which the sounds of the human voice, the guitar and the accordion blend into the language of a unified landscape: that of the Mediterranean. Through the verses of Paul Valéry’s poem “Cimetière marin” and 7 poems by C. P. Cavafy, set to music by Josep Tero and narrated by the voice of Maria Farantouri.
Like every year, the Festival’s activities and events are enriched by literary evenings, lectures, screenings, and workshops for young and old, imbuing art into the Naxos holiday experience.
Festival Credits
Artistic Director: Stelios Krasanakis
Executive Producer: Mario Vazaios
Technical support: Michalis Mathiasos
Communication: Olga Orfanidou
Organization: AEON Cultural Nonprofit Organization
Tickets on sale from 17 July 2024
Bazeos Tower, 12th km of Naxos Chora–Agiassos road | T. 22850 31402
Cafe Cream, Naxos Chora, paralia | Tel. 22850 24312
Venue:
Bazeos Tower, 17th-century monument, in the hinterland of Naxos,
12th km of Naxos Chora–Agiassos road.
Τ. +22850 31402
bazeostower.com | naxosfestival.gr
