The 49th year of the Aeschylia Festival coincides with the organization of the European Capital of Culture 2023. The cooperation of the two organizations has highlighted Eleusis as a center of creation and culture.

Theatre, contemporary art exhibitions, concerts and events spread across the city; a city that invites visitors to get to know and love it.

In 1974, the first Aeschylia Festival was organized, which was envisioned by pr. Mayor of Elefsina Michalis Leventis, to whose memory this year’s event is dedicated. In these almost five decades, Aeschylia has become a “mother” of cultural creation, giving young artists the opportunity to be inspired by the ancient past, the industrial heritage and the multicultural idenity of Eleusis

“Eleusis always keeps something back to show those who come again.” (Seneca)

PROGRAM-AESCHYLIA FESTIVAL 2023

Sunday 27.8

Music

Maria Farantouri&ManolisMitsias

Openin gact: EmiliosBartzis (violin) and Margarita Kolasis (piano)- MYSTERY 154

“Sleep Persephone in the arms of the earth…”, “in Eleusis once”, for a one and only concert, Maria Farantouri and ManolisMitsias join their voices, on August 27, and they remind us of some of the masterpieces of artistic and popular Greek song by the great composers and poets: Theodorakis, Hadjidakis, Mikroutsikos, Seferis, Elytis, Ritsos, Gatsos, Anagnostakis and others. Two great artists, stable and consistent in quality singing, appear in one of the most important archaeological sites and perform well-known and beloved songs accompanied by excellent musicians.

MYSTERY 154 LIVE MUSIC ACTS– Chamber music concert for violin and piano

Violin and piano recital by the emerging Elefsinian artist Emilios Bartzis (violin) and Margarita Kolasis (piano) with works of the classical repertoire.

Co- organized by Ephorate of Antiquites of West Attica

Archeological site of Elefsina

Admissions Free

Wednesday 30.8 & Thursday 31.8

Theatre

PARTICIPATORY PROJECT

BIG AND SMALL SHIPS- MYSTERY 115 

A performance on the borderline between theatre and music, directed by Argyro Chioti, written by Efthimis Filippou, and with music by The Boy (Alexandros Voulgaris) – a monologue interrupting songs that interrupt it back. On stage together for the duration of the performance are the musician and composer The Boy, the narrator, and a mixed choir of local singers.

Monday 4.9

Music

ELEUSINIAN EVIDENCE – MYSTERY 202

The multimedia, audiovisual performance Eleusinian Evidence by Michalis Mytakidis (B.D. Foxmoor from Active Member) and the Analipsis group is a unique project where the music is made exclusively from sounds of the city of Elefsina, accompanied by dramatised film material tied to a rhythmically lyrical narrative that will connect the history of Elefsina’s landscape with the present. The recordings in the framework of the project take place throughout the city: from the industrial areas and the heart of the city and its neighbourhoods to the sea. A special and unprecedented way of artistic creation, approach and presentation emerges and aspires to highlight the sanctity and history of Elefsina, attracting the interest of its young inhabitants.

Paleo Eleourgeio

Wednesday 6.9

Music

Concert of Stavros Xarchakos

Stavros Xarchakos presents a program with his most beautiful songs, colored with the precise interpretation of singers Yiannis Kotsiras and Iro Saia.

Stavros Xarchakos, having these two great singers by his side and himself conducting a multi-member orchestra of leading soloists on stage, gives us a rare journey of sounds and emotions in his musical works.

In this unique concert, we will hear songs such as: “Itane mia fora (Once upon a time)”, “To Dihty (The Net)”, “Pos na sopaso (How to be silent)”, “Sti Salamina (In Salamis)”, “Ftohologia (Poverty)”, “Oneiro demeno sto mouragio (Dream tied to the dock)”, “Matia Vourkomena (Misty Eyes)”, “Ypomoni (Patience)”, “Aponi Zoi (Weary life)”, “Kaigomai (I’m burning)”, etc.

Paleo Eleourgeio

Thursday 7.9

Childrens’ Theatre

«Fairy tale with no name” By Penelope Delta

Directed by Carmen Rugeri

From the novel of the same name by Penelope Delta. An artful, timeless tale, where the homeland and its sufferings are conveyed in an understandable and magical way. It is a play with a particularly interesting plot, which will certainly entertain children, but at the same time teach them in an indirect way, as it talks about values of work, of justice, of effort, of valor, of collectivity as opposed to laziness, injustice, resignation, cowardice and individualism.

Paleo Eleourgeio

Free admission with entrance coupon and invitations

Friday 8.9

Music

Aeschylia Festival introduces the artists: To Sfalma& Frank the Zapper

On September 8, at 20:30, To Sfalma and Frank the Zapper with a full band, are bringing hip hop to the Aeschylia Festival. In the industrial area of ​​the Paleo Elaiourgio on the beach of Elefsina, they will present, in versions that will be heard for the first time, a set of recent and older favorite tracks from their own hip hop, which is unlike anything else on the Greek scene.

The former industrial complex that will host the concert, with the harbor of Elefsina in the background, fuses organically with music that speaks of critical thinking, life struggle, solidarity, perseverance and militancy, framed by a way of life and invites you to take a stance.

Paleo Eleourgeio

Sunday 10.9

Theatre

Hippolytus by Euripides

Directed by Katerina Evangelatou

Aphrodite sets up a game of revenge and voyeuristically watches how humankind turns into a plaything for her whims. Her eye becomes our own eye and the characters are laid bare. The naked bodies are charged with explosion, desire, lust but also the innocence of the human race. A directorial perspective that delves into the savage world of Euripides’ play, approaching it as a contemporary nightmare amid a poetic scenery, where characters struggle with their weaknesses and where love is so mad it can’t help but be fatal. A stellar cast of 24 actors and four musicians will be constantly on stage.

Paleo Eleourgeio

Wednesday 13.9

Theatre

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Never before have we in human history ever “looked” so far away inside the cosmos and so deeply inside humans. Very often, in the brink of destruction, we realize that the evil we are fighting against is, in fact, ourselves. Oedipus’ face is humanity itself in front of the mirror. Having found the culprit, he reaches the point where it is imperative that he make a choice, even at the eleventh hour, even after he has already committed the gravest error.

In this performance, approached as a ritual of purification, a group of actors wearing masks of Elders comprises the writhing, mourning Chorus in agony. Through this Chorus, the tragic characters, namely Oedipus, Jocasta, Teiresias and Creon, are revealed.

Paleo Eleourgeio

Free admission with entrance coupon and invitations

Friday 15.9

music theatre

A CELEBRATION TO CHANGE THE WORLD- MYSTERY 113

An eclectic band of artists, dancers, singers, actors, and musicians are already setting the stage for something strange on the city outskirts. Drawing inspiration from the Dada movement and the surrealist revolution, the oper(o) music theatre troupe make use of collective methods and tools with direction and purpose. They utilise techniques such as collage – the re-composition of pre-existing musical, literary, and theatrical texts, images, and actions – for the creation of a new and unified work that dreams of changing the world.

The production’s core structural concepts include immediacy, spontaneity, artistic freedom, contestation and, ultimately, breaking with any ideas and conditions that are limiting.

It is an explosion of a performance. An explosion that is personal and emotional and desperate. An explosion that is collective and funny, scathing and frightening. An explosion for change, for necessity, for the defence of poetry, love and art. An explosion packed with freedom, bursting with oxygen.

ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Erifili Giannakopoulou

The artists to perform on stage (musicians, singers, dancers) are to be announced.

PUBLIC SPACE (NIKOLAIDOU PEDESTRIAN STR.)

Sunday 17.9

Music

Vasilis Papakonstantinou

Vasilis Papakonstantinou celebrates 50 years in the Greek discography!

A concert that will summarize the most important moments of his musical career that has managed to mark our lives.

Paleo Eleourgeio

Sunday 24.9

Semi marathon “On the Traces of IeraOdos”

An Athens-Elefsina race, along the IeraOdos

21 km Race. Starting point: Keramikos. Time 08:30

5 km Race. Starting point: Elefsina. Time 09:00

Registration form: eleusisimimarathon.gr

VISUAL ARTS

MYSTERY 3

ELEFSINA MON AMOUR
IN SEARCH OF THE THIRD PARADISE

PALEO ELEOURGIO & X-BOWLING ART CENTER

The flagship contemporary art event of 2023 Eleusis, curated by Katerina Gregos, Artistic Director of EMST, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, with the participation of 16 artists by nine countries. The exhibition posits a socio-political reading of Elefsina and the wider area of the Thriasian Plain inspired by the book Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics (2008) by the writer, historian, environmentalist, and activist Rebecca Solnit who analyses politics through the social analysis of place and landscape. The exhibition also takes into account the historical past, which has been instrumental in defining the current identity of the city. It sutures memory and experience, space and time, past and present, and suggests a psychogeographic analysis of the city.

Also included is Aeschylia: An Archive of Memory, an archive exhibition curated by Dora Vasilakou and focusing on the connection between the Aeschylia Festival and contemporary artistic creation.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Katerina Apostolidou, Marianna Christofides, Anastasia Douka, Mahdi Fleifel, Marina Gioti, Igor Grubic, Aglaia Konrad, Natalia Manta, Adrian Paci, SerbanSavu, Sphinxes (Ioanna Tsakalou & Manos Flessas), Maria Tsagkari, Dimitris Tsoumplekas, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Vangelis Vlahos

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CURATOR: Katerina Gregos

Detailed operating program at aisxylia.gr & 2023eleusis.eu