| Dear colleagues,
This year’s IFLA conference is taking us on another brilliant adventure!
Exciting sessions, workshops, library visits, endless networking opportunities and on top of that – a Cultural evening placed in one of the most prominent landmarks in the city of Athens.
Brace yourselves for the evening of 27 August, for it will take us on a journey through stunning gardens with indigenous Mediterranean plants and a 360° panorama view of the city! |
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| This not-to-be-missed event will take place at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre located in Kallithea neighbourhood, which literally means “beautiful view”. The lush gardens and a labyrinth form the green roof of the Opera house and the National Library and they are just a few steps away from the lighthouse.
The whole venue restores the connections between the city and the sea, as the spectacular views from the lighthouse stretch south over the Saronic Gulf and north to the Acropolis.
I am excited to see how this concept perfectly fits into one of the main IFLA’s values: building energising and fruitful connections between the librarians of the world.
We are grateful to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for providing us not only with a fantastic space, but generously sponsoring the entire Cultural evening which will be a unique experience of vibrant Greek culture and rich traditional cuisine. It promises to be an unforgettable evening!
Looking forward to seeing you in August!
Gerald Leitner, IFLA Secretary General |
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Video: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center by Salini Impregilo
Cover image: Xmas@SNFCC, Athens | Photo by Kostas Limitsios |
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| Are you from Greece and eager to participate in the IFLA Congress this year? Then we have an offer for you! |
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| 2019 grants have been among the most diverse ones in recent IFLA Congress history, with even more coming up. Thanks to the generous support of a number of sponsors, we will be able to offer more grants for Greek librarians in the upcoming period.
Watch IFLA WLIC 2019 website and social media closely, as we will soon announce the sensational news! #wlic2019 |
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| 2019 IFLA Congress programme is available on IFLA WLIC website, starting today!
With over a 100 open sessions, 80 different business meetings, caucus meetings, Cultural evening, a large exhibition of library supplies, IFLA offers something for everyone, covering every sector of library profession. Listen to enthralling speakers, participate in world cafes and other discussions, hear how your colleagues are addressing issues affecting your daily work. The full programme is now available from the conference website.
Start mapping out which sessions you’ll attend to get the most from IFLA WLIC and your time in Athens! |
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| Greece is internationally known for its vibrant nightlife with Athens, its capital, holding the reins! |
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| Athens is an ideal destination for those who want to have fun and unwind, leaving stress and problems behind. Often described as the city that never sleeps, Athens has a unique and multidimensional nightlife, offering unforgettable moments! It is a real must-live experience with a great variety of all kinds of entertainment, whether it be dance clubs, little cosy bars, restaurants, theatre, cinemas and the famous live stages known as bouzoukia.
Are you searching for bars and clubs that will be open till the morning light to dance all night long to the rhythm of both local and international music? Do you want to have dinner even after midnight, or give yourself the chance to watch a drama performance at an ancient theater? Then Athens by night is the answer!
Principal venues
Athens has a rich cultural background and has many popular venues in the city centre
Odeion of Herodes
The Odeion of Herodes is Athens’ landmark venue par excellence. It is nowadays the main venue for the summer Athens Festival’s performances, under the shadow of the Acropolis and the Athenian stars!
Technopolis City of Athens
Technopolis City of Athens is definitely the landmark of the Gazi district! It used to be the old gasworks of the capital but has been turned into an impressive museum and a mixed-use cultural centre that houses a wide variety of cultural events, attracting annually over 1,000,000 people. Specifically, the old plant’s courtyard has been adapted so as to host concerts and festivals, theatre and dance performances, children’s events, film screenings, and modern art exhibitions. |
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Technopolis city of Athens
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Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre (SNFCC)
The new SNFCC is Greece’s largest cultural, educational and recreational urban complex, and globally, one of the most sustainable building complexes of its size. It promises to move its citizenry forward into the twenty-first century, through education, sustainability and culture and includes new facilities for the National Library of Greece with a significant book collection, and for the Greek National Opera. Surrounding the buildings is the Stavros Niarchos Park, replete with Mediterranean planting, waterways, a Great Lawn for festivals and concerts, bike paths and children’s playgrounds.
More cultural centres are Michalis Cacoyannis Foundation, Railway Carriage Theater “To Treno Sto Rouf”, Onassis Cultural Centre, Badminton Theater and the above mentioned Greek National Opera. |
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Greek National Opera at SNFCC
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Cultural Events & Festivals
Music and Dance in Athens
Athens has a full calendar of music and dance festivals throughout the year. Distinguished artists from Greece and all over the world dazzle Athenians and visitors with their creativity and inspiration! You will be amazed by the sheer number and variety of the events, artists and different kinds of music and dance on offer, especially summer, under the blue Athenian sky.
Athens Festival
During summer in Greece, the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, one of the most important festivals in Europe, has a wide range of open-air concerts, theatrical and dance events that enrich summer nights. The Festival uses many venues in Athens but the top venue in the city is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the ancient theater from the 2nd century BC, on the slope of the Acropolis. Nothing can match experiencing an ancient Greek tragedy, a ballet or a concert amidst the atmosphere of the old marble of the Acropolis, unless you’re lucky enough to be there during a full moon. |
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Odeon of Herodes Atticus
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The Epidaurus Festival takes place in the seaside area of Epidaurus in the Peloponnese, one hour and a half from Athens. The Ancient Theater of Epidaurus, built in 340 BC, is one of the oldest and most well-preserved theaters. The Little Theater of Ancient Epidaurus, dating from the 4th century BC, allows views of rich vegetation that reach as far as the edge of the sea. Important original plays – both tragedy and comedy – of ancient Greek theater take place in those theaters.
In addition to live entertainment, the Festival offers art exhibitions and tributes to performers throughout the city. Don’t miss out on this aspect of Greece, amazing summer nights with unforgettable entertainment.
More festivals: Terra Vibe, Athens Technopolis Jazz Festival, Ejekt Festival, Plisskën Festival, Open-Air Film Festival. |
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Open Air Cinemas
Cinema under the stars! An essential characteristic of Athenian summer nights is the love for open-air cinemas (also known as summer cinemas). The atmosphere is dazzling! Relax, sip on your cold drink and enjoy a movie under the Athenian sky! |
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Open air cinemas
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Have Fun the Greek Way!
The city that never sleeps at night
To get into the rhythm of the city, enjoy an early evening promenade in the old city centre, where you can enjoy some early drinks during happy hour, followed by a late dinner. There are plenty of nice restaurants and typical Greek tavernas where you can taste world-famous Greek cuisine. Keep in mind that if you don’t want to dine in a nearly deserted restaurant -or among other tourists only plan to arrive in your chosen restaurant sometime after 9pm. There are also tavernas with live Greek music especially in Plaka, Psyrri and Monastiraki. If you are in the mood for a Greek night out following your dinner plans, there are numerous options to choose from.
Bars
If clubbing isn’t your thing, don’t despair! There is a huge music scene from jazz to rock and local music playing everywhere in the city. You can easily find an outdoor bar with or without a live band, and lots of people casually drinking and hanging out. There are a number of bars that carry on after most of the city’s bars have been closed up for the night. These are the famous “after-hours-bars”, catering to those who work late shifts and need a drink after work.
Clubs
There are two kinds of large venues playing either electronic / dance music or the famous bouzoukia, which are venues where Greek singers perform live. Bouzoukia (the word derives from the word bouzouki, the traditional Greek string instrument) play popular Greek songs mostly with an oriental touch, although they have recently incorporated new, faster beats and loud mainstream pop tunes as well. If you want to dive into the Greek way of fun, keep in mind that clubs don’t open before 11.30 pm, they go all night long, and there is often a dress code to enter. In the summer season, most of these clubs move to the southern suburbs of Athens, by the coastline. Poseidonos Avenue is one of the major summer nightclub spots in Athens. |
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Cafés
Drinking coffee in Greece is a ritual. People go out for coffee to meet friends, chat and unwind. In the old days, cafés were also the meeting places of the city’s political and literary elite. Today’s Athenians spend hours over their coffee. You can find cafés on almost every corner of the city. |
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Trendy & All Time Classic Hotspots
Thiseio
Thiseio is a lively district with locals and tourists nicely mixed all day long. It is undoubtedly the favourite walk trail of Athenians, famous for its plethora of cozy cafés, buzzing bars, clubs, traditional taverns and elegant restaurants, most of them housed in neoclassical buildings. In Thiseio, you are guaranteed to enjoy your meal or drink marvelling at the Acropolis. In the summertime you can watch a movie drinking cold Greek beer under the stars at the historic open air cinema on Apostolou Pavlou Street, a very trendy area for drinking your coffee or having a snack in one of the many cafés around.
Plaka
Right at the foot of the Acropolis hill, Plaka is by far the quaintest neighborhood in Athens, popular with visitors. You won’t find big dance clubs and bars, but this alluring part of the city offers lively, traditional places to enjoy Greek culture year-round, folk music and dancing in Greek restaurants to taste Greek delicacies, as well as tavernas and cosy cafés. When walking in historic Plaka, give yourself the chance to pass by the cozy old-fashioned distillery that dates from 1909. The decor is impressive, with rainbow colored bottles covering the entire wall from top to bottom, and there you can sip some Greek liquors and wine! |
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A stroll in Plaka
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Monastiraki
Alternative bars and stylish restaurants lie side by side with old-fashioned cafés and Greek tavernas where you can taste the world-famous Greek souvlaki or gyros pita with a view of the buzzing Monastiraki Square 24/7. At Avysinias Square, a favourite hangout for the young crowd of the city, you can relax and have a coffee or a glass of Greek wine and ouzo with mezedes on the rooftop cafes and bars and try out imaginative cocktails with affordable views of the Acropolis. At Adrianou Street, a charming connection between the Plaka, Monastiraki and Thiseio quarters, you can have a coffee overlooking the Ancient Agora.
Psyrri
Right next to Monastiraki and Thiseio and still at the foot of the Acropolis, this “oriental” district is known for its vibrant nightlife with its narrow, cobbled streets lined with scores of bars, bar-restaurants and clubs, trendy cafés and live music tavernas. Stroll around its hidden alleys and discover some of the best mezedopolia in town, serving small traditional tidbits (meze), wine, ouzo (anise-flavoured liquor) or rakomelo (Cretan raki with honey).
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Syntagma
The heart of downtown Athens has a lively nightlife scene that takes place in hundreds of bars, tavernas and clubs. Apart from hotel bars around the square that are very popular among visitors and locals, there are countless hangouts at Romvis, Kolokotroni, Thiseos and many more cobbled narrow streets. Around the same area, Agia Eirini and Karytsi squares are also some of the go-to choices for brunch or drinks for the Athenians.
Athens Seafront
Paraliaki is the signature word for the Athens coastal avenue! Enjoy your food and drink by the seashore and go on to any of the large number of summer nightclubs. Overall it is a stretch of about 40 km from Neo Faliro to Sounio. All you have to do is drive along the coastal road, pick your venue and have fun.
Athens is enjoying a surge of creativity, in the culture and culinary scenes with lesser known neighbourhoods like Pangrati or Kypseli emerging as new hubs with a plethora of bars and cafes filled with locals. |
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Free walking tours
This is Athens, the official City of Athens Guide, offers a free walk around the city hosted by a local volunteer. You can book this online and truly get to experience what the real Athens is all about.
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| If you are still looking to share your story at the IFLA Congress, this call will be perfect for you: dynamic, short, entertaining, one and only Lightning talks! |
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Lightning talks at “Great ideas for Advocacy”, IFLA WLIC 2018 in Kuala Lumpur: Raphaëlle Bats (France) presenting a board game designed to raise awareness around Sustainable Development Goals
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We’ll be issuing a call for Lightning talks – a great opportunity for a brief presentation on a what a new service or a program of interest you’d like to share.
Topics are as diverse as they can get and should come from across the library field and the continents. Sharpen your pens, as new call is coming up by the end of April! |
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| Would you say this is one of the oldest and most historic libraries of Greece?
You are looking at the Koventarios Municipal Library of Kozani. It operates in northern Greece, to the capital of Western Macedonia, called Kozani. Its history began four centuries ago.
Archaeological manuscripts, archival documents, rare maps and thousands of publications from 1494 can be found today at the new imposing building of the library at 9 Konstantinos Davaki Street. |
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| The architects-designers of the project have spoken with admiration for the pioneering building for its time as well as for the innovative content of the library.
The 7,000 square meters of the library building include bookstacks, reading rooms, a children’s library, permanent or periodical exhibitions, an amphitheatre, a cafe and a multi-purpose foyer.
Visit the Koventarios library website to learn more about it, and don’t forget to sign up for local and non-local library visits happening on August 30! |
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