1st MOUNT PENTELICUS FESTIVAL
The thread that connected Athens with Penteli in ancient times was eventually picked up by the Municipalities of Penteli and Athens, which decided to launch together a new cultural institution, the Mount Pentelicus Festival.
The Festival will be held in early September on Mount Pentelicus, while throughout the year, there will be joined cultural events in Athens and Penteli. The historic Greek Radio Choir will inaugurate the Festival, paying tribute to our great composer Mikis Theodorakis at the Ancient Quarry of Penteli.
Until September 18, the audience, with free admission, will have the opportunity to enjoy concerts, theatre performances, exhibitions and lectures in iconic venues refurbished and reintroduced to the citizens, such as the Ancient Quarry of Penteli and the Duchess of Placentia Mansion.
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Commenting on the initiative, the Mayors of Penteli, Dimitra Kechagia and Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, stated:
Dimitra Kechagia – Mayor of Penteli: “From the heart of Mount Pentelicus, from the Ancient Quarry, through a miracle of engineering, quarry art and culture, the timeless symbol of Athens, of Greece, was created. But unfortunately, this aspect of Mount Pentelicus has not been highlighted as it should. Our task in the Municipality of Penteli is to showcase this exceptional monument, the cultural wealth of the wider mountain and upgrade it environmentally. This year, in cooperation with the Municipality of Athens, our Municipality, highlighting the cultural heritage of Mount Pentelicus and promoting its contribution to classical antiquity, is inaugurating a new cultural institution in Attica. The Mount Pentelicus Festival will be hosted at the Ancient Quarry and other venues of the Mount every year in early September. In this context, we will also organise cultural events throughout the year in Athens and Penteli. I want to thank the Mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, for our exceptional cooperation. The Mount Pentelicus Festival will offer our fellow citizens quality events, encouraging Athenians to visit the mountain and experience its beauty”.
Kostas Bakoyannis – Mayor of Athens: “Athens and Penteli are linked by an unbreakable relationship that has lasted for centuries. A road built in antiquity resulted in creation and civilization. The culmination of this relationship in the past was the Parthenon, the universal symbol of beauty. With this new partnership, we are here today to reinvest in culture and civilization through other paths. Because this is our country’s most outstanding intangible capital. We seek, alongside the Mount Pentelicus Festival, to make people aware that the natural environment and culture have always been and can be an inseparable and indivisible whole. “
The City of Athens Greek Music Workshop, through OPANDA, will participate in the 1st Festival of Mount Pentelicus with a concert at the Duchess of Placentia Mansion.
On the occasion of this cooperation, the President of OPANDA, Niki Arabatzi, stated: “It with great pleasure that OPANDA participates with the City of Athens Greek Music Workshop in this new cultural institution of the municipalities of Athens and Penteli, aiming at developing and promoting the cultural heritage of Mount Pentelicus and the natural environment of the wider area. Furthermore, this effort enhances the cultural profile of Attica, thus promoting cultural tourism further”.
The Festival’s Vision
The Mount Pentelicus Festival offers free admission to theatre performances, concerts, exhibitions, and lectures, and through its rich cultural program, it aims to:
– Highlight the monuments and cultural treasures of Mount Pentelicus (Ancient Quarry, other quarry sites, Duchess of Placentia Mansion, Byzantine heritage).
– Connect these different historical periods to the present.
– Re-introduce these venues to the residents of the Attica Basin.
– Strengthen and promote, through its cultural events, the belief that culture and the natural environment are inseparable entities.
– Introduce a new cultural tourism attraction.
The festival is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
The Lithagogia Road (Stone Transporting Road) connecting Penteli with Athens
The two municipalities have been connected and cooperating since antiquity. The Lithagogia Road is the downhill path through which the marbles from the heart of Mount Pentelicus were transported to the Parthenon, the symbol of our country’s cultural heritage. The cobbled “Lithagogia” route, starting from the Ancient Quarry of the Cave, keeps the secrets of the Parthenon miracle. This monument is the most reliable testimony of a technologically and aesthetically advanced civilization.
The Parthenon in the Municipality of Athens and the Ancient Quarry in the Municipality of Penteli are reconnected as sites of high symbolic, political and religious value through Culture.
The Mount Pentelicus Festival is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Courtesy of PPC, MEGA Disposables, Polygreen Circular Economy Solutions and Flexopack Innovators Manufacturers Packaging Solutions.
Communication sponsors: ERT and the 2nd Program.
Program information: festivalpentelikou.gr