If you are on Aegina this month, there is a good reason to stay out after dark. The Aegina Music Festival is marking its twentieth year with a run of concerts that opened on August 3 and continues until August 22. Every performance begins at 21:00, once the heat has eased and the island settles into its slower evening rhythm.
This has never been the kind of festival that fills a stadium, and that is exactly its charm. The concerts happen in small, open-air settings: the courtyard of the Church of Sotiros in the town, the stone-built Molfesi Theatre up at Pachyorachi, and, for the finale, right on the sand at Avra Beach. Under the artistic direction of pianists Dora Bakopoulou and Elena Hounta, the programme leans on classical and chamber music, with the occasional turn towards musical theatre and Greek song.
There is still plenty left to catch. On August 9, pianists Manos Kitsikopoulos and Filippos Gatzios share an evening of Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin and Debussy. On August 13, mezzo-soprano Lenia Zafeiropoulou and pianist Theodoros Tzovanakis bring a programme of Sibelius and Tchaikovsky under the title “White Nights”. And on August 18, a night of chamber music co-organised with the Thessaloniki State Orchestra gathers a lineup of internationally known soloists, among them pianist Lily Maisky.
The festival closes on August 22 with what is likely to be its most sought-after night: Alkinoos Ioannidis and Elli Paspala performing the songs of Manos Hatzidakis, with Dora Bakopoulou at the piano, on the beach at Avra. For a lot of visitors, an open-air Hatzidakis concert by the sea is exactly the kind of evening they came to Greece for.
Tickets are available online through ticketservices.gr, with advance sales on the island at the Aiakeion patisserie, and at each venue from one hour before the concert starts. Reduced tickets are offered for students, the unemployed and people with disabilities. These are small spaces, so it is worth arriving a little early if you want a good seat.
Twenty years in, the festival has quietly become one of those fixtures that regulars build their August around. If you happen to be on the island, it is well worth a night out.
Photo: nemomemini / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)