Top events posts | MY GREECE TRAVEL BLOG

Category: Top events posts

Major music and party events in Greece during summer 2018

The Matala Beach Festival has been drawing tens of thousands of music enthusiasts to Crete each summer, and this year’s event takes place June 22 to 24 at Matala — the legendary beach where hippies lived in caves during the 1960s and 70s. Follow the Matala Beach Festival page on Facebook to receive information about this year’s event when details are announced.

Parties in paradise: Music lovers looking to combine fun in the sun and sea with live music and DJ events can choose from several high-profile festivals being held at various locations in Greece again this summer.

So far, dates have been announced for four major events that will draw thousands of music fans to some of the most popular islands in Greece this summer — Crete, Ios, Mykonos and Rhodes.

They include the annual Matala Beach Festival on Crete, the Swedish Midsummer Festival on Ios, the Lindos Rock event on Rhodes, and the XLSIOR Festival on Mykonos.

I will update this post when the dates and locations of additional major music and party events are announced.

Check the links provided under each promotional image for further information and updates about those specific events.

The Lindos Rock live music event will be held from June 20 to 30 in Lindos village on Rhodes. Check the Rockers Reunited webpage for further details about participating acts and ticket sales.

One of the most popular party events on Ios island every year is the Swedish Midsummer Festival, which in 2018 will take place on Friday June 22. Check the Life is a Beach Party website for further details and announcements.

Attracting more than 30,000 gay and gay-friendly participants, XLSIOR Festival is the biggest annual party on Mykonos, and will take place from August 22 to 29 in 2018. Exclusive themed DJ events will be held every afternoon and night of the festival at venues in Mykonos Town and at the island’s top party beaches. See the XLSIOR Festival website for information about tickets and events.

Tuesday food & drink promotion kicks off at bars, restaurants & cafes in Central Athens

January 13, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

The Have Fun in Athens (Βγαίνουμε Αθήνα) food and drink promotion launched today at 39 participating establishments in the city center

Cheap ‘n’ cheerful: More than three dozen restaurants, bars and cafés have teamed up to offer special food and beverage discounts every Tuesday as part of a City of Athens initiative to boost local business and enliven the city center.

The Βγαίνουμε Αθήνα promotion, which translates as “Going out in Athens,” is a weekly event that will take place every Tuesday starting today.

Participating establishments will be offering special tasting menus at a price of €10, coffee beverages for €2, drinks for €5 and bottles of wine for €12. The specials are available all day on Tuesdays, and each restaurant will offer its own menu.

City staging a comeback from the economic crisis

With Βγαίνουμε Αθήνα, the City aims to maintain momentum in the ongoing revival of its historic and commercial center, which has been staging a remarkable comeback from the financial crisis that devastated the country’s employment and economy for five years.

The goal is to draw more people into the city’s central core to further animate and enliven the area and enhance social and economic activity.

Though just under 40 businesses have signed up so far, the City is actively encouraging more establishments to participate. Click here to see a list of places already in the program.

Click here to read an announcement about the Βγαίνουμε Αθήνα program, in Greek, at this page on the City of Athens website. (I have written to the City’s press office to ask if information about the program is available online in English, but haven’t heard back yet. However, you can use a program like Google Translate to read a reasonable translation of the program description.)

Singers Julio Iglesias, Anna Vissi and Conchita Wurst to perform at Mykonos beach clubs this week

July 25, 2014 / admin / 2 Comments

Eurovision singing sensation Conchita Wurst, left, and Greek entertainer Anna Vissi, right, will appear at the Jackie O’ Beach club on Mykonos Saturday night. This image was posted with a recent protothemanews report about the event.

Big-name acts: The Mykonos party scene will reach a midsummer climax over the next four days when several internationally-renowned singers make live appearances at two of the island’s top beach clubs.

Anna Vissi will perform at Jackie O’ Beach Saturday July 26 during a special concert event celebrating the 40th anniversary of her music career. She will be joined by “bearded lady” Conchita Wurst, who won the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest for Austria six weeks ago with the song “Rise Like a Phoenix.”

Jackie O’ Beach is located at Super Paradise beach. The popular straight-friendly gay club will open its doors at 7:30 for the event, which will feature warm-up performances by Greek singer Demy as well as Greek Eurovision participants Freaky Fortune, Risky Kidd and Apostolos Mitropoulos.

Tickets are being sold at Jackie O’ Beach as well as its sister bar, Jackie O’ Mykonos in Mykonos Town. The club’s website doesn’t provide ticket prices, but a Greek Reporter article published today said prices range from €100 to €450.

On Wednesday July 30, international singing superstar Julio Iglesias will appear with popular Greek performer Antonis Remos at Nammos by the Sea, the chic restaurant and nightclub at trendy Psarou beach.

The Facebook page for the Julio Iglesias Meets Antonis Remos event doesn’t list ticket prices, but one fan posted that she heard standing-room tickets start at €60 while tables are priced from €1000. Tickets can be ordered by contacting Nammos by telephone at: +30 22890 22440.

Please click on the number 2 in the link below to read about more events taking place on Mykonos.

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Cyclades islands celebrate summer with festivals for food & wine, arts & literature, culture & sports

July 3, 2014 / admin / 1 Comment

A promotional poster for the 10th Annual International Festival of the Aegean taking place July 6 to 19 in Ermoupoli on Syros island.

Food & culture fests: I love travelling to Greek islands during low season, particularly in the spring, but that means I always miss out on major cultural and gastronomical celebrations that are held only during the summer.

Just in the Cyclades group of islands this month alone, a wide variety of food & wine festivals, painting & photography shows, arts & literature events and fun sport competitions will be taking place on Antiparos, Naxos, Paros, Santorini, Schinoussa, Serifos and Syros.

(Cultural events abound in other island groups, too, and of course there are scores of religious festivals throughout the country, many of which take place during the summer. But those are topics I’ll cover in future posts.)

Below is an outline of just a few of the festivities you can check out if you happen to be island hopping in the Cyclades between this weekend and the end of September. You’re in for a big surprise if you thought the Greek islands were only about picturesque villages, beautiful sandy beaches and gorgeous scenery!

Click on the 2 in the link below to continue reading about activities on Antiparos, Santorini, Naxos, Paros, Schinoussa, Syros, Serifos and Mykonos.

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Sudden storm soaks Skiathos on Sunday

June 16, 2014 / admin / 3 Comments

This video showing a Skiathos Town street flooded by yesterday’s thunderstorm was posted on YouTube by the tsak Bpam crêperie. It reminded me of television newsclips reporting on flooding from monsoons in southeast Asia. This wasn’t a scene I would expect to see on a Greek island in June!

Stormy interlude: I keep a small travel-size umbrella in my luggage just in case we encounter some rainy weather while travelling in Greece, and we have had to use it a few times. If we manage to schedule a trip to Skiathos in the near future, news about some wild weather on the island yesterday may make me consider packing some rubber boots, too.

Only two weeks ago, in my June 4 post Greek islands take spring weather woes in stride, I reported about thunderstorms that brought several days of heavy rain and strong wind to many parts of Greece at the beginning of this month.

This past Sunday afternoon, Skiathos got thoroughly drenched by a sudden deluge that dumped over an inch of rain on parts of the island in less than an hour.

Torrential rain, power cuts and street flooding reported

News about the latest bout of bad weather broke on the TripAdvisor.com Skiathos forum where SkiathosLover1, a TripAdvisor destination expert for the island, started a conversation thread entitled “Violent Storms … affecting the island this afternoon,” and described “torrential rain,” thunder and lightning, power dips, and “reports of flooding in Papadamatis street.” SkiathosLover1 also included a link to the YouTube video which I posted above.

Numerous people quickly posted replies expressing concern and hopes that all residents and visitors to the island were safe and minimally affected by the tempest.

This morning TA member ShaunWin chided them for “getting so worked up about yesterday’s storm.” It lasted only an hour and “was fun to watch,” he wrote, but “that was it. It’s glorious again today, with not a cloud in the sky.”

“If you’ve got friends or fans out here and are worrying about them: Don’t! They’ll be on the beach or on the beers today and not worrying about you!!” ShaunWin observed.

However, while the storm may have been fun for some to watch, SkiathosLover1 pointed out that it did cause considerable damage bringing down trees, and did frighten passengers returning to the island on tour boats.

A description of the storm’s highlights can be read a June 15 post on The Skiathan blog.

Nikos Paschalis posted this photo on Facebook, showing stormwater rushing down Papadamatis street in Skiathos Town during the late afternoon downpour.

Acropolis Museum turns 5

June 6, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

Looking toward the Acropolis Museum from a vantage point on the Acropolis itself. Below is a zoom view of the museum, which turns 5 years old on June 20. I shot the photos on June 1 during a weekend visit to Athens.

Birthday bargain: If you’re going to be in Athens on June 20, make plans to pay the Acropolis Museum a visit. The beautiful building will mark its fifth anniversary that day, and will be charging a reduced admission fee of only €3 to celebrate the occasion. (That’s two Euros cheaper than the already bargain-priced entrance charge.)

Exhibition areas will be open from 8 a.m. until midnight, so you’ll have plenty of time to drop by and enjoy the museum’s permanent collections as well as its current special exhibition, Archaic Colors.

The museum will be hosting two special events for the big day. One involves the use of three-dimensional digital image technology to show how copper weapons and bridles would appear on the horsemen on the west frieze of the Parthenon. The second is a 9.30 p.m. concert by musical artist Leon of Athens in the museum’s courtyard entrance.

I described the museum in my March 3 2012 post, Acropolis Museum is a must-see Athens attraction, which includes photos the museum provided of some of the spectacular items in its collection. And in my post Another Acropolis Museum treasure: food earlier this year, I reported that VirtualTourist.com had ranked the Acropolis Museum Restaurant as one of the world’s top 5 museum restaurants.

Below are several more pictures I took of the museum exterior last weekend. (Although photography is permitted in most of its galleries, the Acropolis Museum does not permit media publication of such images, so I didn’t take any shots inside. The wonderful treasures are best viewed in person in any event, so be sure to schedule time to see the museum if you haven’t been there already.)

A street view of the museum’s eastern facade

Visitors gather on the museum’s entrance plaza, which overlooks archaeological ruins discovered during construction of the building

Architectural details on the building’s eastern facade

A walkway leading to the museum entrance

Window and facade details on the museum exterior

The museum’s rooftop cafe terrace has views of the Acropolis

A view of the Acropolis from the museum’s entrance plaza. The large sign on the side of the building at left is a promotional poster for the museum’s Archaic Colors exhibition, running until July 31.

All eyes on tonight’s ‘super moon’ above Greece

June 23, 2013 / admin / 0 Comments

Anthony Ayiomamitis captured this gorgeous photo of a golden full moon rising above the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Greece on May 5 2012. It’s the featured photo on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website.

Moon event: You can be sure that a lot of people in Greece will keep looking skyward tonight as the biggest full moon of 2013 rises on its dramatic pass across the sky.

According to the Astronomy Picture of the Day website, the exact full phase of the moon will occur at 11:32 UT, shortly before the moon reaches perigee — the closest point to Earth in the lunar orbit.

Since this Full Perigee Moon will be the biggest and closest full moon of the year, restaurants, bars and clubs across Greece will be celebrating the big occasion with a variety of events, from quiet viewings over cocktails to special dinner menus and even some all-night-long dance parties with world-renowned DJs entertaining.

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