Events in Athens, Greece
This October, Athens fills its calendar with concerts, dance and exhibitions. Deep Purple play the Athens Olympic Sports Complex on 13 October, The Charlatans play Floyd on 17 October, the same day as Swallow The Sun, and The Cleveland Orchestra visits the Megaron on 21 October. Candlelight concerts bring Vivaldi's Four Seasons to the Old Parliament House on 30 October. Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch brings Vollmond to the Megaron from 6 to 9 November, and the Athens Marathon weekend takes place on 7 and 8 November. Exhibitions include Pylos of Nestor at the National Archaeological Museum, clinamen at Onassis Mandra and Gen X at the DESTE Foundation.
Athens events this October from the official listing
The events below are drawn from Athens's official events calendar for the month, and each card links straight to the calendar's own listing with the dates and the venue. For the sights that stay open all year, start with tourist attractions in Athens.
Deep Purple
When: 13 October
Where: Athens Olympic Sports Complex, Marousi
The hard rock veterans return to Athens for an arena night built around Smoke on the Water and Highway Star, with Jayler opening.
The Charlatans
When: 17 October
Where: Floyd, Keramikos
The Manchester band behind the Hammond organ groove play an intimate club show more than 35 years into their career.
The Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst
When: 21 October
Where: Athens Concert Hall (Megaron)
Marking the 25th and final season with its music director, the orchestra plays Liszt's Orpheus and the second symphonies of Martinů and Brahms.
In the Footsteps of Writers, A Theatrical Walking Tour
When: 18 September to 23 October
Where: Starts at the National Bank of Greece, Aiolou Street, Plaka
An 80-minute walk through Plaka where actor-guides perform scenes from the lives of Seferis, Drossinis and Cavafy. The tour is conducted in Greek.
Pina Bausch, Vollmond
When: 6 to 9 November
Where: Athens Concert Hall (Megaron)
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch brings Vollmond to the Alexandra Trianti Hall, with a giant rock on stage and water flooding the floor.
Athens Marathon, The Authentic
When: 7 to 8 November
Where: From the town of Marathon to the Panathenaic Stadium
The classic 42.195 km route ends inside the Panathenaic Stadium, with 10 km and 5 km road races and family runs over the same weekend.
Live music and festivals in Athens
The Jazz Room: a journey to the heart of New Orleans
The Jazz Room plays the Parnassos Literary Society on 9 October at 19:00.
Swallow The Sun
Swallow The Sun plays Architektoniki Club Live Stage on 17 October.
Candlelight: Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Candlelight: Vivaldi's Four Seasons plays the Old Parliament House on 30 October at 19:00.
Candlelight: Coldplay & Imagine Dragons
Candlelight: Coldplay & Imagine Dragons plays the Old Parliament House on 14 November at 19:00.
Art exhibitions and museum shows in Athens
Pylos of Nestor, A Mycenaean Kingdom Revealed
Until: 31 October
Where: National Archaeological Museum
Over 200 antiquities from Messenia trace the Mycenaean palace tied to the Homeric king Nestor, after stops in Kalamata and Los Angeles.
Jani Christou, Enantiodromia
Until: 8 November
Where: EMST
The first major institutional show on the avant-garde composer opens his archive to the public for the first time, tracing his thought and method.
Gen X, Tales from the Forgotten Generation
Until: 26 November
Where: DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art
Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection by artists born between 1960 and 1980, the generation known as the Forgotten Generation.
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, clinamen
Until: 5 December
Where: Onassis Mandra
Hundreds of white porcelain bowls drift and collide in three pools of moving water, an outdoor sound installation in Plaka.
Danae Stratou, AFALES | NAVELS
Dates: 8 October 2026 to 31 January 2027
Where: Megaron, Athens Concert Hall
A site-specific show in the Service Yard links humanity and nature through a salt disc evoking the Moon's orbit and a lunar light sculpture.
An Ode to Things, Niki Kanagini retrospective
Until: 14 February 2027
Where: EMST
A retrospective of one of Greece's most significant post-war women artists, from large-scale tapestries to immersive, participatory installations.
Athens tickets and tours
Bank holidays and local festivities in Athens
Public holidays reshape a visit more than most travellers expect. Public offices and banks close, shops shut or move to holiday hours, museums switch timetables and transport thins out, so a day built around a market or a museum can come apart. Greek law fixes nine compulsory public holidays for the whole country, under article 60 of Law 4808/2021, and those are the days on which work is prohibited rather than left to each employer.
National holidays in Greece 2026
- 1 January New Year's Day (Πρωτοχρονιά)
- 6 January Epiphany (Θεοφάνεια)
- 25 March Independence Day (Εικοστή Πέμπτη Μαρτίου)
- 13 April Easter Monday (Δευτέρα του Πάσχα)
- 1 May Labour Day (Εργατική Πρωτομαγιά)
- 15 August Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Κοίμηση της Θεοτόκου)
- 28 October Ochi Day (Το Όχι)
- 25 December Christmas Day (Χριστούγεννα)
- 26 December Second day of Christmas (Δεύτερη ημέρα των Χριστουγέννων)
Local holidays in Athens 2026
- 3 October Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, patron saint of Athens (Άγιος Διονύσιος ο Αρεοπαγίτης), local
On that day the administrative, financial and technical services of the City of Athens close to the public, while nurseries, refuse collection, controlled parking and the cemeteries carry on; in 2026 it falls on a Saturday. Beyond the nine compulsory days, the official visitors guide also counts Clean Monday on 23 February, Orthodox Good Friday on 10 April, Orthodox Easter on 12 April and Whit Monday on 1 June among the public holidays that change opening hours, and it notes that shops trade from 13:00 to 19:00 on Good Friday. The national tourism organisation desk beside it keeps 09:00 to 17:00 on Sundays and public holidays.
Before you go to Athens
Tourist attractions in Athens
The Athens guide on Tourist Office maps out a first day around the Acropolis, the neighbourhoods worth wandering and the sights to book ahead.
Where to get help in Athens
This page lists the official tourist information points in Athens, the hours they keep and which public holidays change them.