With great success and in a celebratory atmosphere, the Athens Epidaurus Festival hosted a special event on September 30th to present the anniversary documentary 70 Years of the Athens Epidaurus Festival – Through Their Eyes, along with the commemorative volume Seventy Acts.
Artists, collaborators, friends of the Festival, journalists, and the Festival’s management attended the event — a night filled with memories, emotion, and a celebratory spirit.
Artists, collaborators, friends of the Festival, journalists, and members of the Festival’s administration attended this memorable evening filled with recollections and emotion.
Artistic Director Michail Marmarinos welcomed the audience in a deeply human atmosphere, where the stories unfolding on screen resonated powerfully with their real-life narrators, many of whom were present in the room.
The documentary 70 Years of the Athens Epidaurus Festival – Through Their Eyes traces the Festival’s 70-year journey through personal, authentic, moving — and at times humorous — accounts from people who experienced it from within: directors, actors, musicians, set and costume designers, theatre scholars, choreographers, artistic directors, and technical staff. Their testimonies are brought to life with rare archival material, rehearsal footage, and excerpts from landmark performances.
The film is a production of the Athens Epidaurus Festival and elc productions, with COSMOTE TV as co-producer.
The Festival’s Board President, Dimitris Passas, emphasized that the documentary and the publication together leave two distinct yet equally valuable marks — one in print and one digital — both honoring the rich legacy of the Athens Epidaurus Festival.
The commemorative volume Seventy Acts is an impressive 730-page publication, curated by Panos Giannikopoulos, with design and artistic direction by the creative studio bend. It contains 846 archival items from Festival catalogues and programmes, including posters, photographs, set designs, and handwritten notes.
Founder of elculture, Nikos Ververidis, spoke about the project with particular emotion, highlighting the power of personal stories in capturing the Festival’s long journey. He also noted the symbolic value of the collaboration, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of elculture: “We began our journey with the Festival. It is an honour to reconnect in this new chapter with a work that pays tribute to its people and its legacy.”
The Festival’s General Director, Ioannis Kaplanis, pointed out that the film is neither academic nor scientific: “It’s the Festival’s unseen side — its people, its audience, its everyday reality. That’s what the Festival truly is.”
He expressed heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the film’s creation — the team behind the project, the sponsors and supporters, and the 70 individuals who shared their personal stories on camera.
Through Their Eyes stands as a heartfelt tribute to cultural memory, while also looking ahead. It is a cinematic documentation that goes beyond the past, inspiring hope that this great celebration of culture will continue for many more decades to come.
