Athens
01
12
2023
WEEKEND REPORT

The SNFCC Christmas World comes alive on December 1st

With a glittering celebration, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) is transformed on Friday, December 1st at 19:00, into one of the most enchanting Christmas destinations in the city.
With a glittering celebration, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) is transformed on Friday, December 1st at 19:00, into one of the most enchanting Christmas destinations in the city.

A special festive event with free entry for the public and hosted by Nadia Kontogeorgis, marks the start of the SNFCC Christmas World and is made possible thanks to a donation from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

On the first night of December, countless holiday lights are turned on, casting their glow on the plane trees of the Canal and the decorated fir trees of the Agora. A Festival of Lighting Installations sets a bright tone in the evening Stavros Niarchos Park: four works by distinguished foreign artists and a Greek participation magnetize the eyes by creating a choreography with the material light. Even the Fountains on the Canal participate in the spectacle in their own spectacular way. The scenery is completed by the Ice Rink in Kanali, waiting for experienced and non-skaters to dance on the ice.

The appointment is at 19:00 at the Agora where the youth choir of El Sistema Greece opens the evening with traditional carols and other well-known Christmas songs. Next, Mwenso and the Shakes come straight from Harlem, New York and blow the crowd away with a special Christmas program called 'Afrofuturistic Christmas Wonderland'. An exuberant music performance sprinkled with Christmas gold dust and all-time classic hits such as Santa Claus is coming to town, Have yourself a merry little Christmas, Rudolph the red nose reindeer, Winter wonderland and Silent night.

This is a celebratory concert held in collaboration with the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, as part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation-Lincoln Center (SNF-LC) Agora Initiative, a partnership to redefine public space, part of which are the "Twin Agoras" at the SNFCC and Lincoln Center. The entire event will be broadcast from Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall. The December 1 celebration will also be broadcast online by ERT2.

More information and the detailed program of the SNFCC Christmas World can be found at snfcc.org/Xmas2023, as well as on the SNFCC social media pages @SNFCC.

Entrance is free.