Aegina, the Greek Woodstock
Andama, 1st Greco-Flamenco Festival, will take place in Aegina, Greece, between October 6th – 9th. This event will honor the guitarist Giorgos Papadopoulos and will feature artists from Spain, California, Brazil and Greece itself.
Aegina is a small island across the port of Athens, at the heart of the Saronic Gulf. This island, land of pistachio and source of the most venerated blues, will host, during the second week of October, the most anarchic and intimate flamenco that any lover of this genre can enjoy in our days. It will be a humble Greek Woodstock where the names and numbers of the travellers will be left at the neighboring Piraeus quay.
The sunny squares of Aegina, its timeless bars and its whitewashed houses will witness the toil and glory of a multitude of artists from all over the world: guitarists and bailaoras from Spain and musicians from faraway California and Brazil as well as from various corners of Greece. All of them united with one purpose: to honor the eventful life and the unexpected passing of Giorgos Papadopoulos, a flamenco guitarist who sprouted from the old and memorable cradles of this genre: Morón and Triana, with a hint of Jerez. Fertile seeds that bore endless fruit in the veins of this musician, transforming his life and the life of those who dared top approach him.
Helena García, founder and soul of the 1st Greco-Flamenco Festival in Aegina, died and was reborn in this Mediterranean island thanks to Giorgios and the birds flying over this ancient land. This year, the first year of this ADAMA gathering, she will bring her friend back to life with multiple activities — courses, concerts, conferences — which will turn this island into a land of duende and zotikó where we can be where we belong. A Cretan beat, a falseta por soleá, a bulería de Jerez danced in the air.
