ACF2023: Concerts at Olympia Municipal Music Theatre

May we have a month of your time? We promise to make every day count.

The Athens City Festival, the biggest annual spring festival of Athens is back! Athens City Festival will take place throughout the whole of May (yes, you got that right, a 31-day-long festival) with free entrance* events happening all around the city. Consisting of four main pillars—Exhibitions, Gastro-Culture, Entertainment, and Outdoor Athens—the festival aims to showcase both the essential and the understated traits of our unconventional city, offering visitors a first-hand experience of the Athens way of living life. This year ACF includes more than 120 events catering to all tastes, types and ages, making May the ideal season to pay a visit to our side of the Mediterranean. Click here for our selection of the festival’s events, or head over to the official website for the full programme. Let’s Athens in May!

May in Athens sounds like heaven, with countless outdoor events across the city organised by Athens City Festival. There is also a series of indoor events at the impressive restored building of the Olympia Municipal Music Theatre. 

This is a unique opportunity to experience the opera Lionella after it was recently restored in the early 21st century. Composed in Corfu by Christos Samaras and premiered in 1891 at the Opera of Milan, it is the tragic story of Roma Lionella and her neglectful lover Andor, a Hungarian aristocrat and gambler. 

Lakis Halkias is so much more than just a well-known and respected Greek singer, musician, and songwriter. His family has played a significant role in preserving the traditional music of Greece. In this retrospective, Lakis Halkias performs songs by prominent Greek composers such as Mikis Theodorakis and Stavros Xarchakos. 

There’s more to Beethoven than the famous 5th Symphony (the one that goes “dun dun dun-dun!”). If you are a Beethoven fan or want to delve further into his works, this evening dedicated to the grand composer is the place to be. The ERT National Symphonic Orchestra and piano soloist Agapi Triantafyllidi is to perform three of his pieces: “Coriolan Overture”, one of his earlier works “First Concerto for piano and orchestra”, and his “Fourth Symphony”. 

* Most events are free entrance and require no tickets, to the exception of some concerts that have a priced ticket, and some events that are free entrance but require pre-registration or are invitation-only. All related information to each of the festival's events can be found on the festival's website, under the page for each event.