Cycladic Kids Festival 2025

The City of Athens Arts Center will host an exhibition with the works and winners of this year’s 11th Kids’ Art Contest curated by the Museum of Cycladic Art with the title “Guardians of the Cyclades” with 10,000 entries!

Space: Exhibition area, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

Is a clean environment a child’s right? If so, why are we destroying it?

The Children’s Library “Myrsini Zorba” opens its collection and bring to the 3^rd Cycladic Kids Festival books with the theme of ecology and the maintenance of the natural balance of the environment. This collection waits for you in the specially designed festival area, to meet and perhaps find your new favorite book!

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

In the 10 active years of the International Kids Contest as well as the 10 years of Library4All we are joining forces and supporting school libraries all over Greece! We are organizing a “book wave” at the exhibition space of the Arts Center to collect new or almost new Greek books suitable for children aged 4-12.

Note: Library4All does not accept encyclopedias, activity books, school books, with stickers, with cartoon characters, newspaper offers. We are mainly asking for fairy tales due to the large number of applications that they receive for preschool from every corner of the country.


Library4all’s wish is for all schools to have an accessible, up-to-date library, connected to the life of the school, with a librarian and with annual state funds for the purchase of books. A library truly for all, with all.

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

Readers of all ages choose books from the rich collection of books relating to the environment. They enjoy reading together, share their thoughts and discover the magic of books.

On small pieces of paper, they write down the key words about the environment and they create a huge alphabet book in the end.

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Is it possible to make our school year calendar with the leaf prints? Children will observe closely the details of different leaves, small and large, use paints and rollers, and make their own nature school calendar with the prints of all these different leaves.

Space: E1, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Flowers, leaves, small and large, wheat and many other treasures are going to be the protagonists of your work! Children are going to imprint the shapes and designs of their favorite leaves and flowers on pieces of clay, creating their own ornaments of nature.

Space: E1, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Nature has its own “secret” language. Leaves, flowers, seashells and clouds follow patterns, shapes and rhythms – as if they operate based on a hidden code! Just like nature, knitters in earlier times used codes to “write” the designs they created in their weavings. Instead of drawing them, they would mark them on special grids where each square had its own color. These codes were a way for them to share ideas and keep traditional designs alive.

In our workshop, we will explore these magical codes! Without using a crochet hook, but with paper, colors, and imagination, we’ll work on grids, play with symmetry, color combinations and traditional motifs.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

During this workshop, children will encounter the art of handmade silk-screen printing, one of the oldest printing techniques!

Each kid will print on old posters from the Museum of Cycladic Art or on second-hand T-shirts that they bring themselves!

At the same time, the Loops team will explain the magic behind silk screen printing, its applications, as well as some very interesting facts about its history.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Plastic Clever Schools will offer a litter picking activity led by PCS Ocean Champions (middle school students). This hands-on activity will take place within the festival grounds, on a pre-defined route, and aims to foster environmental awareness and responsibility through direct action.

The PCS exhibition booth will include collection and separation points (plastic and non-plastic waste) for the waste collected during the litter picking activity.

Space: E5, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

The first children’s environmental theater performance by The Bee Camp. What happens when almonds disappear overnight? Where could they have gone? Could someone has stolen them? Only a bee holds the key to this enigmatic mystery!

Through theater, children discover the importance of pollination and the role of bees in nature. An interactive experience that sparkles the imagination and environmental awareness!

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

A workshop that gives the opportunity to children with their parents/guardians, to play together, touch, watch, learn and be introduced to each other through the joy of movement. A kinetic journey inspired by the fairy tale “The Valley of the Butterflies” by Kaiti Paraskeva. Young and old, through the history of Panaxia and Pelekanos, they discover the story of the Valley of the Butterflies in Rhodes by dancing!

Space: E4, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Through this hands-on activity, children enhance their creativity, environmental awareness and team spirit, as they are invited to express themselves artistically in a natural environment, creating a collective Land Art project in the Park. They will use natural materials (such as stones, leaves, wood, etc.) and work collaboratively. At the beginning of the workshop, they will be introduced to the history and techniques of Land Art, drawing inspiration to convey a message through their creation.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Did you know the wind can… make electricity? In this fun, hands-on workshop, kids between the ages 5–12 will explore how wind turbines work through educational robotics, building, and coding! Inspired by the windy Cyclades islands, they’ll create and program their own robotic wind turbines and become young scientists of the future!

Space: Exhibition Area, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

A series of stations, where participants explore and create using every natural material.

They observe seeds and plants, touch silkworm cocoons and raw wool, and experiment with the initial stages of fiber processing.

At each station, they have the opportunity to create something of their own, depending on the fiber they explored. Through this experience, the natural production process is transformed into play, knowledge, and imagination.

Space: E6, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Zamominia is a group of musicians and educators who, since 2020, have been composing children’s songs and performing concerts and musical shows at children’s festivals, theaters and schools. Our concert is aimed at children and families, with the goal of providing both entertainment and musical education through an interactive and original musical experience.

The program features original Zamominia songs, with themes inspired by nature, animals, and topics that interest children aged 2–8 years. Throughout the concert, the musicians interact with the audience, inviting children to participate actively through dance and music-and-movement activities that make use of the fundamental elements of music.

In addition, children have the opportunity to learn musical instruments (guitar, trombone, clarinet, flute, saxophone) through interactive instrument-recognition games, while by solving riddles, they contribute to the progression of the concert.

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

What is the magical secret of pollen?

How is it related to our favorite fruit?

Would there be fruit without bees?

Through theatrical play, we follow the bees inside the hive and discover their life, their different roles, and the art of cooperation. We observe the nature around us, learn about pollination and the importance of biodiversity. Finally, we make seed bombs to fill our city with fragrant and colorful wildflowers. Ready to fly? Dust off your wings and let’s go!

Space: E8, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Brave heroes encounter dragons, witches, and giants, facing trials and journey with the power of love and friendship. A young prince seeks “Briar Rose” to awaken her with his kiss, while another hero, aided by the eagle, searches for the Eternal Olive Tree. Nature guides their steps and reminds us that humanity is bound to the earth, the trees, and the waters, in a circle of life, love, and hope.

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

When September arrives, the vineyard invites us to a unique experience!
Children become little vintners: they stomp grapes, make must, taste raisins, and learn the secrets of the grape harvest and its products. Through knowledge, fun, flavors, and aromas, they discover the treasures of the Greek land and explore the world of the vineyard with all their senses.

Space: E1, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Join us in creating a vibrant collage of images, ideas, and smiles!
Art has the power to change the world—one postcard at a time!

A unique photography workshop invites children and young people to dive into the worlds of art, ecology, and creative recycling through an improvised multi-collective photo exhibition.

In an interactive space, participants will use natural materials—such as flowers, leaves, and fruits—along with recyclable objects to compose their own scenes. They’ll choose a background, set up their creations, photograph them in a professional pop-up studio, print their images as postcards, and display them in an “open-air exhibition” as part of a collective work of art.

Space: Exhibition Area, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Could a banner become a bag? Could a fabric poster become a ribbon? Kids will take pieces of old banners and posters and turn them into tote bags. They will make holes, tie, cut and, finally, draw. All in the spirit of how we can reuse useless materials to make useful objects.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

You may have thought that forest fires are linked to drought, but also to the large-scale production of clothing and food. Climate change definitely affects us! But what can we actively do to protect the environment and change what seems difficult to change?

Through the installation of three interactive stations, we invite you to make a positive promise to take action: By changing our habits, we can change climate change!

Space: E8, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

A series of stations, where participants explore and create using every natural material.

They observe seeds and plants, touch silkworm cocoons and raw wool, and experiment with the initial stages of fiber processing.

At each station, they have the opportunity to create something of their own, depending on the fiber they explored. Through this experience, the natural production process is transformed into play, knowledge, and imagination.

Space: E6, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

The children will learn how to give new life to everyday materials and to nurture their own herbs. The goal of this workshop is for children to cultivate a relationship with nature and plants, by learning about basic herbs and their uses, while also understanding the concept of reuse and developing care and responsibility skills.

Space: E4, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Guided by Vasia Exarchou’s book, “The Circle of the Cyclades,” children enjoy a summer travel adventure. In the company of the characteristic animals that live in the Cyclades, they discover hidden treasures by solving the puzzles on the pirate maps. At the end, they create their own pirate maps.

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Birds in Search of Oxygen!

Who – who – who? What – what – what? Why – why – why?

A participatory eco-theatre experience inspired by Aristophanes’ The Birds.

In a noisy, polluted city, a modern-day Peisthetairos is searching for the mythical City of the Birds. Together with children and their companions, he meets the mysterious Tereus – the man who became a bird – and embarks on a feathered theatrical mission full of riddles, play, and ecological questions.

Will they manage to reach the city where all creatures have both a voice and oxygen? The city center transforms into the setting for a journey through past and future -where democracy, art, and nature meet.

Space: E7, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

The story is about a handicapped rabbit, Romy, who helps other animals to reach even higher. It was written about a very special little girl, Ophelia, who uses a wheelchair. As with all good stories, this one contains a very special message and there is another story behind it. We believe it will speak to the hearts of young and old alike.

Educationalist Eleni Geroulanou will present the story.

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

Come and join us to play and learn about the environment through fun board games!

Kykladoupoli shows us how everyone can help protect nature and live more sustainably.

Vikos takes us on a journey through the water cycle, reminding us of the importance of this precious natural resource for our lives and for the planet.

Finally, with the board game Routes by STASY, children discover Public Transport Systems and learn about the benefits of green mobility.

Space: E1, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Plastic Clever Schools will offer a litter picking activity led by PCS Ocean Champions (middle school students). This hands-on activity will take place within the festival grounds, on a pre-defined route, and aims to foster environmental awareness and responsibility through direct action.

The PCS exhibition booth will include collection and separation points (plastic and non-plastic waste) for the waste collected during the litter picking activity.

Space: E5, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

The PATARI PROJECT team returns with a new production, Rov & Krous, an exciting performance for the entire family.

While everything around them has been wiped out by an unprecedented flood, two men find refuge on the roof of a house. As “castaways” they are obliged to live together for a short period of time, but the existence of the “other” seems hostile. While they do not speak the same language, they communicate through gestures and body language, and that creates intense and explosive situations, often hilarious. Alone in the world, the two “enemies”, with no one else to turn to, gradually begin to get closer and find a way to coexist. Then comes the twist…

And then what? A humorous play, for young and old, special and exciting.

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

One of the most beautifully animated films ever made, Flow promises to take us on a floating adventure with its four-legged heroes. An ode to nature, a warning about climate change, pure adventurous fun. Nothing is missing from Gints Zilbalontis’ elegant artwork that will move young and old alike.

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

The City of Athens Arts Center will host an exhibition with the works and winners of this year’s 11th Kids’ Art Contest curated by the Museum of Cycladic Art with the title “Guardians of the Cyclades” with 10,000 entries!

Space: Exhibition area, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

Is a clean environment a child’s right? If so, why are we destroying it?

The Children’s Library “Myrsini Zorba” opens its collection and bring to the 3^rd Cycladic Kids Festival books with the theme of ecology and the maintenance of the natural balance of the environment. This collection waits for you in the specially designed festival area, to meet and perhaps find your new favorite book!

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

In the 10 active years of the International Kids Contest as well as the 10 years of Library4All we are joining forces and supporting school libraries all over Greece! We are organizing a “book wave” at the exhibition space of the Arts Center to collect new or almost new Greek books suitable for children aged 4-12.

Note: Library4All does not accept encyclopedias, activity books, school books, with stickers, with cartoon characters, newspaper offers. We are mainly asking for fairy tales due to the large number of applications that they receive for preschool from every corner of the country.

Library4all’s wish is for all schools to have an accessible, up-to-date library, connected to the life of the school, with a librarian and with annual state funds for the purchase of books. A library truly for all, with all.

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

Readers of all ages choose books from the rich collection of books relating to the environment. They enjoy reading together, share their thoughts and discover the magic of books.

On small pieces of paper, they write down the key words about the environment and they create a huge alphabet book in the end.

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Is it possible to make our school year calendar with the leaf prints? Children will observe closely the details of different leaves, small and large, use paints and rollers, and make their own nature school calendar with the prints of all these different leaves.

Space: E1, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Flowers, leaves, small and large, wheat and many other treasures are going to be the protagonists of your work! Children are going to imprint the shapes and designs of their favorite leaves and flowers on pieces of clay, creating their own ornaments of nature.

Space: E1, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Nature has its own “secret” language. Leaves, flowers, seashells and clouds follow patterns, shapes and rhythms – as if they operate based on a hidden code! Just like nature, knitters in earlier times used codes to “write” the designs they created in their weavings. Instead of drawing them, they would mark them on special grids where each square had its own color. These codes were a way for them to share ideas and keep traditional designs alive.

In our workshop, we will explore these magical codes! Without using a crochet hook, but with paper, colors, and imagination, we’ll work on grids, play with symmetry, color combinations and traditional motifs.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

During this workshop, children will encounter the art of handmade silk-screen printing, one of the oldest printing techniques!

Each kid will print on old posters from the Museum of Cycladic Art or on second-hand T-shirts that they bring themselves!

At the same time, the Loops team will explain the magic behind silk screen printing, its applications, as well as some very interesting facts about its history.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Plastic Clever Schools will offer a litter picking activity led by PCS Ocean Champions (middle school students). This hands-on activity will take place within the festival grounds, on a pre-defined route, and aims to foster environmental awareness and responsibility through direct action.

The PCS exhibition booth will include collection and separation points (plastic and non-plastic waste) for the waste collected during the litter picking activity.

Space: E5, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Is a clean environment a child’s right? If so, why are we destroying it?

The purpose of this action is ecology and the preservation of the natural balance of the environment. Through books, experiential and creative activities, children will become aware of and assimilate effective ways to protect nature.

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

A workshop that gives the opportunity to children with their parents/guardians, to play together, touch, watch, learn and be introduced to each other through the joy of movement. A kinetic journey inspired by the fairy tale “The Valley of the Butterflies” by Kaiti Paraskeva. Young and old, through the history of Panaxia and Pelekanos, they discover the story of the Valley of the Butterflies in Rhodes by dancing!

Space: E4, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Through this hands-on activity, children enhance their creativity, environmental awareness and team spirit, as they are invited to express themselves artistically in a natural environment, creating a collective Land Art project in the Park. They will use natural materials (such as stones, leaves, wood, etc.) and work collaboratively. At the beginning of the workshop, they will be introduced to the history and techniques of Land Art, drawing inspiration to convey a message through their creation.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission on a first-come first-served basis

Join us in creating a vibrant collage of images, ideas, and smiles!
Art has the power to change the world—one postcard at a time!

A unique photography workshop invites children and young people to dive into the worlds of art, ecology, and creative recycling through an improvised multi-collective photo exhibition.

In an interactive space, participants will use natural materials—such as flowers, leaves, and fruits—along with recyclable objects to compose their own scenes. They’ll choose a background, set up their creations, photograph them in a professional pop-up studio, print their images as postcards, and display them in an “open-air exhibition” as part of a collective work of art.

Space: Exhibition Area, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

A series of stations, where participants explore and create using every natural material.

They observe seeds and plants, touch silkworm cocoons and raw wool, and experiment with the initial stages of fiber processing.

At each station, they have the opportunity to create something of their own, depending on the fiber they explored. Through this experience, the natural production process is transformed into play, knowledge, and imagination.

Space: E6, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Two narrators, an actor, and a musician, each with their own tools, grasp the thread of the myth and lead the audience into its unknown paths. With them, we will rediscover the Labors of Hercules.

A strange theatrical puzzle that opens new dimensions, opportunities and stories to the myth we already know. Fellow travelers on this journey will be objects, songs, all the possible paradoxical timbres that a piano can produce, and electronic sounds will circulate the stage.

A paradoxical narrative that shows that, depending on where you look at a story, it takes on a new form, one you hadn’t even imagined.

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

The “Bulouki” – Traveling Workshop on Traditional Building Techniques invites children between the ages of 8-12 for a special workshop dedicated the traditional buildings of the Cyclades.

Through games and experiments, children will learn about the tools that are used on the islands: rocks, clay mortars, and many other natural elements. Starting from the Cycladic house, we will try out materials, create ideas and build small structures the way we imagine them.

Space: E8, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

As part of Plastic Clever Schools educational outreach, we are co-organizing a campaigning workshop in collaboration with Alexandros Ramiotis, Head of the Fridays for Future movement.

This workshop aims to empower young participants to become advocates for protecting the ocean through informed action. As part of the workshop, the participants will create a campaign message which they will write in pre-designed signs and tour the festival grounds to campaign the cause.

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

A special storytelling performance with live music, dedicated to the magic of nature, is inviting children of ages 7+ and their families to an exciting journey filled with images, sounds, and emotions.

The audience has the opportunity to listen to stories from different regions of the planet, to delve into the customs, traditions and customs of different cultures, to encounter music from all over the world and to become familiar with the sound of a multitude of musical instruments. A deep, tender and funny experience for young and old, reminding us that nature always has a story to tell.

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

Did you know the wind can… make electricity? In this fun, hands-on workshop, kids between the ages 5–12 will explore how wind turbines work through educational robotics, building, and coding! Inspired by the windy Cyclades islands, they’ll create and program their own robotic wind turbines and become young scientists of the future!

Space: Exhibition Area, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

Could a banner become a bag? Could a fabric poster become a ribbon? Kids will take pieces of old banners and posters and turn them into tote bags. They will make holes, tie, cut and, finally, draw. All in the spirit of how we can reuse useless materials to make useful objects.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

A series of stations, where participants explore and create using every natural material.

They observe seeds and plants, touch silkworm cocoons and raw wool, and experiment with the initial stages of fiber processing.

At each station, they have the opportunity to create something of their own, depending on the fiber they explored. Through this experience, the natural production process is transformed into play, knowledge, and imagination.

Space: E6, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

You may have thought that forest fires are linked to drought, but also to the large-scale production of clothing and food. Climate change definitely affects us! But what can we actively do to protect the environment and change what seems difficult to change?

Through the installation of three interactive stations, we invite you to make a positive promise to take action: By changing our habits, we can change climate change!

Space: E8, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration require

Children discover the fascinating world of bees through observation, hands-on activities, and creativity!

They explore a transparent, closed beehive, learn about the profession of the beekeeper and the tools of the trade, taste honey, and get to know the valuable products of the hive. Using natural beeswax and fabric, they create reusable wraps, understanding how small changes can lead to a cleaner, more sustainable world.

Space: E2, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

The workshop begins with a short introduction to the art of comics. Then, the children will tour the exhibition of the Children’s Contest “The Guardians of the Cyclades” and will be asked to choose a hero, observe him/her and take notes about him/her.

In the end, under the guidance of the Athens Comics Library group, they will create their own story for the hero they have chosen. The meeting will close with a small, improvised exhibition, where all the children will present their creations!

Space: Athens Book Space, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required

In the places where the stone speaks to the wind and the sea hides secrets in its depths, salty and bright stories were born. Fairy tales that lasted through time passed from the mouths of all those old storytellers to the ears of the younger ones.

Fairy tales that whispered the harmony of coexistence, the responsibility of care, the tenderness and wisdom of nature. A storytelling performance for children, with fairy tales and stories that were heard and recorded in the Cyclades. Lies or truth, who knows? That’s how fairy tales are.

Space: Central Stage, City of Athens Arts Center
Open participation

In this workshop, children create their own herbal drink, taste it, and learn how to improve it, playing with flavors and natural aromatics. They learn the basic principles of tasting, experiment with natural “flavor enhancers,” and understand how plants are connected to local biodiversity.

Space: E4, City of Athens Arts Center
Free admission
Online registration required