President of Adelaide’s Festival Hellenika shares his top picks from the 2025 program
Source: NEOS KOSMOS
What began as a small concert 34 years ago has evolved into a multidisciplinary arts festival running across three months this year.
Festival Hellenika kicks off in March, with a jam-packed events program spanning from philosophical discussion to dance to food.
For festival president Dr Adoni Fotopoulos, running the festival is a labour of love —or meraki (passion)— alongside his day job as a chiropractor. In fact, the whole team behind Hellenica are volunteers, which Adoni sees as an asset; “there’s a genuine reason behind this festival… it’s the obligation towards and love for our culture.”
“I love that the festival has grown from just us here in Adelaide to now events coming from overseas and interstate. It creates a bridge between our culture and others,” Adoni tells Neos Kosmos.
“We [Greeks] have been gifted this amazing culture that enriches the mind, and we’ve inherited this treasury of ideas,” he says. “I want people to leave with that feeling of enrichment.”
This year’s program, the 34th edition of the Festival Hellenika, is dedicated to Persephone and her transformative journey—entering a space and coming out changed. As Adoni puts it, “Art has that power. A song can do that to you, a meal, a play can do it too. You can be a different person after entering an artistic, creative space.”
Festival Hellenika is designed for everyone, regardless of cultural background. Adoni explains, “it’s not about the DNA, it’s about the openness of people’s hearts and minds.”
President Adoni Fotopoulos gives Neos Kosmos his top picks for the festival:
Hikaru: Ray of Light: presented with Consulate General of Greece in Adelaide
This light installation is coming to Australia from Athens, and will also be appearing at the Adelaide Fringe. Adoni describes it as a “dreamlike, immersive interplay of light and shadow”, with nods to Greek shadow theatre and concepts of philosophy.
Logos Unbound: Wisdom, and the rise of Intelligent Machines
Can AI ever be as wise as Socrates? Is the idea interrogated through this philosophical play and discussion. It will be led by Dr Edward H Spence professor of philosophy at Charles Sturt University.
Greeks in Space
Join astronomer Mary Adam for a night at the Adelaide Planetarium, where she walks through Ancient Greeks and their understanding of the sky. You will be looking at Greek constellations and how Greek mythology comes alive in the sky.
The Greeks of Tashkent, a photo exhibition and discussion led by journalist Helen Vastikopoulos
This exhibition tells the story of 12,000 Greeks displaced by Stalin to Tashkent, Uzbekistan after the Greek civil war, whose lives were transformed by the sudden dislocation, but also the education and opportunities they received under a communist regime.
Adoni notes the complicated nature of this displacement. “Because they were under a communist regime, they got the opportunity to be educated, particularly women. They came back having learned classical music, ballet, mathematics, and astrophysics. They ended up with a totally different life because their life in Greece would have probably been agricultural. They came from villages in abject poverty.”
The Hellenica Festival is running from March to May across Adelaide. It is presented by the Organisation of Hellene and Hellene-Cypriot Women of Australia (SA) with the support of the Greek Museum of Adelaide.
The full program available at festivalhellenika.org.au
The original article: belongs to NEOS KOSMOS .
