Music, dance, theater, nature, wellness and activities for all
Summer is loading and the temperature is getting high! What are your plans for this July? This year again, Vamvakou Revival suggests a fun, cool, refreshing and carefree four-day celebration in the village of Vamvakou on Mount Parnon, Lakonia. For the fourth consecutive year in the heart of the summer, from July 4-7, 2024, the Vamvakou Experience Festival will cool down July’s first hot days. It will excite you with music, dance, theater, activities in nature and fascinating programs for young and old available for free to all, realized as part of the Vamvakou Revival initiative thanks to an exclusive grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Concerts & music
Music lies at the core of the Vamvakou Experience Festival! Our artistic journey begins on the evening of the very first day, July 4, with a promising musical warm-up by “The Burger Project” who will be throwing a “Party en famille”, an interactive concert for families and children (4-12 years old). With wonderful views of the starry sky over Mount Parnon and a cocktail in hand, we move ahead dynamically to the second day (July 5) listening to different music styles ranging from alternative rock and electronic rhythms to cinematic music selected by Makis Papasimakopoulos in the role of the DJ. On July 6, Anser, the popular Lakonian rapper known for his head-spinning rhymes, comes from Sparta to offer visitors an exhilarating hip-hop experience in a rural setting. Anser will be joining forces with Andri J and Eversor on the decks. And because, as the song goes, it’s never getting cold in Greece, Locomondo, our favorite music band, will be singing with us in the cool breeze celebrating twenty-one years of reggae, ska and Latin rhythms, in an unforgettable summer concert performed on the same night (July 6). Just before the festival closes (July 7), the Oros Ensemble invite you to a walk full of melodies across the village whose houses and yards will be transformed into music stages. Flute, double bass, violin, clarinet, accordion and percussion solos will fill up the place with notes. The ending is expected to be just as impressive! Schoolwave on Tour (July 7) featuring Deterrents, Feyrouz and Taigetus, three music bands whose young members come from Athens, Chania, Corinth, Kalamata and Sparta, will tour off to the mountain for an unexpected musical collaboration in the Vamvakou square.
Arts, culture & tradition
If you think that access to performing arts, entertainment and culture is a privilege of living in a city, you should probably reconsider! For the second consecutive year, the Greek National Opera Ballet returns to the Vamvakou Experience Festival to present a dynamic modern dance diptych titled ‘Return of the Summer’ (July 5), choreographed by Ioannis Mandafounis and Konstantinos Rigos, on music by Giorgos Koumendakis and Hector Berlioz, respectively. The artistic program of the day goes on with ‘Parabases/Readings’ (July 5), the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) readers’ theater series which will complete its cycle in Vamvakou; Christos Loulis will read on stage excerpts from Vincenzo Cornaro’s poem Erotokritos, directed by Dimitris and Orestis Stavropoulos, on music and sound design by Jeph Vanger. On July 6, we will discover the secrets of the traditional weaving art of Geraki in an interactive demonstration with upright looms given by the Cultural Society of Geraki village, Lakonia in the Vamvakou village square.
Activities in nature & wellness
Returning to nature and freeing ourselves from everyday routine means returning to our inner selves. It would be thus impossible not to include shiatsu and a relaxing face and head massage session (July 6), held by Alexia Tseleki applying finger pressure to our body energy channels; a breathing meditation session in the forest practicing ‘pranayama’, the practice of breath control (July 6), and yoga for all (July 7) led by Maria-Anna Vlahou and Molly Seirinaki. A properly organized bike ride on the mountains with HAIBIKE electric mountain bikes (July 6) and a morning hike to the cave monastery of Agia Kyriaki on the feast day of Saint Kyriaki (July 7) led by the group “Our Vibe is Mountains” will bring visitors in touch with nature and rural life.
Family and kids activities
And as summer in the village means carefree childhood memories, soil, nature, fun and joy, the Vamvakou School will be transformed into a flavorful Chocolate School (July 6) offering workshops on how to make handmade chocolate, tasty experiments and chocolate-related activities, while the village playground will host an amusing Color Celebration (July 7) led by Happy Elephant, spreading the message of optimism, hope and joy. In collaboration with Organosi Earth, children will discover the secrets of a vegetable garden (July 6) and will become little farmers; they will follow the bees inside the hive and “going round and round” (July 6) they will discover the bees’ life cycle and the art of cooperation through theatrical play led by The Bee Camp. Under the guidance of Elena Paloumba, chemist and head of the Lakonia EKFE (Natural Sciences Laboratory Centers), young and old will have the opportunity to make rustic soap (July 7) in a workshop intertwining tradition with science and technology. New parents and their babies will have the chance to take part in the Vamvakou Baby Boom Dance (July 7), a tender dancing game organized in collaboration with the Learning & Participation Department of the Greek National Opera and the dancers of the GNO Ballet.
As the popular song goes, “we want you to be there, no matter what”, so find out more about our events program and reserve your place now, by clicking here:
