Athens in autumn 2025 is a city in motion – restless, radiant, and just a little bit showy. As the summer heat finally loosens its grip and evenings linger in that golden Athenian light, the city’s museums, galleries, and concert halls leap into the spotlight with programming that feels both cosmopolitan and unmistakably local. If you’re the type who prefers your culture with a side of marble columns and a dash of Mediterranean charm, you’re in luck.
From mid-September through late November, expect exhibitions that challenge and charm, and music events that transform marble stages and open-air theaters into the social heart of the city. Athens doesn’t just invite you in – it insists you pay attention. Whether you’re chasing the next big idea or just looking for a reason to stay out past sunset, here’s what should be on your cultural radar this season.
Art
Art Athina
Art Athina — 18–22 September 2025
Athens’ signature art fair returns to the Zappeion with global reach and fresh ambition
This September, the neoclassical halls of the Zappeion Mansion host the latest edition of Art Athina, the capital’s flagship art fair and one of Europe’s longest-running. Now in its 30th year, the fair brings together seventy-two galleries from Greece and abroad, presenting painting, sculpture, digital works, and experimental practices.
Alongside the main exhibition floor, curated design projects, performance pieces, and the “Art for Tomorrow Talks” expand the program into new directions. It is at once a marketplace, a showcase, and a gathering point for Athens’ thriving art scene — an event that signals the cultural season is officially open.
Zappeion Mansion, Vasilisis Olgas Avenue
NIight at the Museums
26 September 2025
Athens’ museums glow at night in autumn. EMST opens late on Thursdays, while the Acropolis Museum extends Fridays, letting visitors see exhibitions and the Parthenon Gallery after sundown. On 26 September, European Researchers’ Night, a European initiative held in over 400 cities across Europe, transforms venues citywide—labs, observatories, and cultural halls—into playful, participatory spaces open till late.
Sammy Baloji: Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress
Until 2 November, 2025
At EMST, the Congolese artist Sammy Baloji unravels colonial legacies and their aftershocks in Africa through photography, video, and installation. His work exposes the entanglements between Europe and Congo, where the exploitation of resources left scars that remain visible today. It is an intellectually dense exhibition, yet visually magnetic, offering visitors an unflinching look at history’s shadows refracted in the present.
Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives
Until 15 February 2026
Also at EMST, this vast curatorial project led by director Katerina Gregos shifts the gaze from the human to the more-than-human world. Installations, films, and immersive works ask whether empathy can be extended across species. The show balances urgency with imagination, insisting that art can articulate new forms of care and responsibility in an age of climate crisis.
National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST), Kallirois Avenue & Amvr. Frantzi Street, Koukaki
Marlene Dumas: Cycladic Blues
Until 2 November 2025
At the Museum of Cycladic Art, Marlene Dumas’s emotionally charged paintings and drawings meet the distilled abstraction of Cycladic idols. Installed in the neoclassical Megaro Stathatos, the exhibition heightens contrasts between vulnerability and timeless form. The encounter between the stark minimalism of marble figurines and Dumas’s nervy brushwork makes this one of the season’s most intense cultural dialogues.
Museum of Cycladic Art, 4 Neophytou Douka
Takis
Until 2 November 2025
The Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation marks the centenary of Takis, the Greek sculptor whose fascination with magnetism and energy produced some of the most innovative art of the twentieth century. The exhibition focuses on his celebrated Magnetic Fields, delicate constructions that hum and vibrate, capturing invisible forces. Seen alongside the foundation’s permanent collection of Giacometti, Bacon, and Van Gogh, the show situates Takis in the global story of modernism.
Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Eratosthenous 13, Pangrati
Juvenilia: From Early Style to Mature Work
2 October 2025 to 11 January 2026
Tracing the seeds of genius in eleven masters of modern Greek art
At Benaki Museum’s Pireos 138 complex, Juvenilia revisits the formative years of eleven major Greek artists, including Yannis Tsarouchis, Yannis Moralis, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, Dimitris Mytaras, and Chryssa Romanos. The exhibition juxtaposes early, often tentative works with the mature styles that later defined 20th-century Greek art. Essays by leading art historians accompany the display, offering critical insight into how motifs, gestures, and themes first emerged before crystallizing into an artist’s signature language. More than an archival look back, the show invites viewers to re-evaluate the foundations of modern Greek creativity.
Benaki Museum, Pireos 138
Paolo Colombo: Music and Mosaics
25 September–8 November
Bernier/Eliades Gallery hosts Paolo Colombo in an exhibition where watercolor meets mosaic and sound. By weaving references to Byzantine and Roman floors with delicate brushwork and musical rhythms, Colombo creates a dialogue between antiquity and contemporary practice. Visiting at dusk, before walking Thissio’s pedestrian streets toward the Acropolis, makes the experience all the more atmospheric.
Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Eptachalkou 11, Thissio
Photography
World Press Photo Exhibition
25–27 September 2025
For three days in late September, Athens hosts the World Press Photo Exhibition at Peiraios 260. The global showcase brings together the year’s most compelling photojournalism, offering powerful images of conflict, resilience, protest, and change. It is an essential stop for anyone who wants to see the stories that defined the year through the lens of some of the world’s finest photographers.
Peiraios 260
The Holy Art Gallery: Showcase
17–19 October 2025
In Monastiraki, The Holy Art Gallery stages a short but ambitious exhibition featuring international artists across photography, video, and mixed media. With a global selection and an experimental tone, the show is a chance to discover emerging voices and new approaches to visual storytelling in the heart of the city.
The Holy Art Gallery, Normanou 3
Music
Robbie Williams
2 October 2025
Robbie Williams arrives at the Panathenaic Stadium for one of the most anticipated concerts of the year. His Live 2025 / Britpop Tour promises theatrical flair, irresistible anthems, and the thrill of seeing a global pop icon perform in the marble stadium that hosted the first modern Olympics.
Panathenaic Stadium, Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, Pangrati
Gipsy Kings
21 September 2025
The Gipsy Kings bring their infectious rumba flamenca to the Lycabettus Theatre. Under the Athenian night sky, with the city glittering below, their fiery guitars and unmistakable rhythms create an atmosphere of dance and joy.
Lycabettus Theatre, Lycabettus Hill
The Rasmus
25 October 2025
At Floyd, the Finnish rock band revisits their post-grunge hits with theatrical flair. Their moody anthems carry nostalgia for the early 2000s while still resonating with younger fans discovering their atmospheric sound.
Floyd, 16 Syggrou Avenue, Syngrou
Alexei Volodin & Lukas Karytinos
10 October 2025
At Megaron, pianist Alexei Volodin joins conductor Lukas Karytinos and the Athens State Orchestra for a night of classical brilliance. In the city’s most refined concert hall, expect a program of virtuosity and orchestral depth that underscores Athens’ thriving classical scene.
Megaron Athens Concert Hall, Vasilissis Sofias Avenue & Kokkali
La Gioconda
October–November 2025
The Greek National Opera stages Verdi’s La Gioconda at the Stavros Niarchos Hall. With its sweeping arias, orchestral grandeur, and melodramatic plot, it is opera at its most thrilling, a reminder that Athens continues to cultivate world-class productions in a landmark venue.
Greek National Opera, Stavros Niarchos Hall, 364 Syngrou Avenue, 17674 Athens
Public Service Broadcasting
25 October 2025
At Gazarte, the London-based band merges archival footage, electronic beats, and indie guitar lines into an immersive live show. More than a concert, it’s a kind of visual essay in sound, history, and pop culture — a perfect match for Athens’ hybrid cultural spirit.
Turbonegro
9 November 2025
Also at Gazarte, Turbonegro brings punk flamboyance to the city with a performance that is loud, theatrical, and deliberately over the top. For fans of punk rock and high-energy shows, this will be the season’s wildest night out.
Gazarte, Voutadon 32–34, Gazi
