Tip of the day – Athens Jazz Festival 2026 * 25 years

• May 22, 2023

Every year since 2001, Athens Jazz has been meeting us at the end of spring, marking the official start of the concert summer in Athens. The city’s longest-running music institution with free admission hosts a variety of jazz trends, bands and acts with international careers and recognition from every corner of the globe, attracting more than 6,000 visitors a day.

To mark the festival’s 25th anniversary, the Greek Day of Athens Jazz brings a big surprise to the Technopolis stage, featuring two unique acts that bridge generations and sounds. Athens Jazz is celebrating 25 years on the city’s music scene with a grand celebration. From May 25 to 31, 2026, Technopolis of the City of Athens will be filled with music, rhythm, and energy—the very elements that have defined the city’s pulse for 25 years—with free admission, as always. For one week, artists and groups from Greece and abroad will take the stage at Technopolis to showcase the freshest sounds contemporary jazz has to offer, while a series of parallel events will round out the festival experience.
For its 25th anniversary, Athens Jazz has prepared a big surprise, dedicating the Greek Day to the festival’s own journey. In this anniversary edition, Athens Jazz returns to its roots to highlight what has shaped it: the people, the collaborators, and the moments that have made it a benchmark for the domestic and international jazz scene for more than two decades. Thus, this year’s Greek Day is redefined as a tribute evening, a distillation of memory and creativity, designed exclusively for the 25th anniversary of Athens Jazz.

In this context, this year the festival has chosen to present a revamped Greek Day, which honors the history of the institution while simultaneously looking dynamically toward the future, while the established open call for selecting the three acts that traditionally opened the first day will return next year. Thus, on Monday, May 25, two Greek acts will take the stage at Technopolis, captivating the audience with their sounds and setting the tone for this year’s anniversary event in the most representative way.
More specifically, the Stavros Lantsias Quartet will open the 25th Athens Jazz with the project “My Ennio Morricone,” which serves as a tribute to Giorgos Charonitis, a man who was a key collaborator of Athens Jazz as a member of its artistic committee since 2015 and who maintained a special connection with the work of the great Italian composer, whom he considered his “spiritual father.” Immediately afterward, the Greek Cooking Band will take the stage, a unique ensemble created specifically for the 25th edition, bringing together a vibrant network of past winners and creators from Athens Jazz’s Greek Day and transforming the stage into a meeting place where history meets the present.

Athens Jazz comes more dynamic than ever from 25th to 31st of May at Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens, presenting an impressive, international line-up that fully expresses the no-holds-barred nature of jazz. For the 24th year, the city’s longest-running musical institution gives us the opportunity to enjoy live and with free admission on the main stage of Technopolis all the trends of jazz worldwide through 21 concerts of renowned artists and up-and-coming groups from Greece and abroad, making the festival one of the most diverse in recent years.

Monday 25.05

21:00 | Stavros Lantsias Quartet “My Ennio Morricone” (GR)
22:30 | the Greek Cooking Band (GR)

Tuesday 26.05

21:00 | Lesní Ζvěř (CZ)
22:00 | OTOOTO (DK)
23:00 | Conic Rose (DE)

Wednesday 27.05

21:00 | Keelepeksjad (EE)
22:00 | elephant9 (NO)
23:00 | Alabaster DePlume (UK)

Thursday 28.05

21:00 | Ermis Michael Trio + 1 (CY)
22:00 | Kosmonauci (PL)
23:00 | Jazzbois (HU)