With long standing heritage Athens is considered as city with the longest thriving impressive cultural tradition among any city of the Europe. Athens not only is popular for its ancient culture as well is known for present day cosmopolitan culture and behavior of the city.

The present culture of the Athens has roots in the ancient culture of Athens and Greece and is known for providing the world some of the best play writers, poets, philosophers and orators. The city has a vast number of theatres, concert halls, big and small exhibition galleries etc. make new cultural history. The Athens has many big and huge number of international performance groups with a continued enthusiasm for the arts and can be felt at its best during June to September at the Athens Festival.  This prominent international festival was started in 1955 and merges music, modern and classical theatre, and contemporary and traditional dance along together. The Festival at Athens is being organized at Venues like he Roman Odeon of Herod Atticus, the open-air theatre on Lykavittós Hill, the Veákio amphitheatre in Piraeus and the amphitheatre at Epidaurus.

Tradition of Music and Dance in Athens

There are many restaurants in the city at Plaka area that showcases the display of music and dance in night. The displays are formed being lively and entertaining, keeping the interest of visitors in mind. The rather authentic Greek music in Athens is formed of dhimotiká the, folk songs consisted of guitar, clarinet and violin and rembetika.  The music there mixes the Middle Eastern and Greek influences and the lyrics there relates to the life of the poor and outsiders. The main orchestra town there is Athens State Orchestra that keeps many performances at the Mégaron Mousikis Athenon, Leofóros Vassilissis Sofías. The Dora Stratou Dance Theatre was developed around 40 years ago, by a dancer and enthusiast of Greek folk culture. There on every evening from May to September a band dressed in traditional costume showcases the exuberant Greek song and dance at an open-air theatre on Filopáppou (Philopapps Hill), opposite the Acropolis.

Theatrical culture in Athens

The tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes, and the comedies of Aristophanes symbolize are some of the best work that were created at Athens and thus are considered as the birth of the Western Drama. The initial presentation of Drama occurred at the Théatro Dionysou (Theatre of Dionysos), on the southern slopes of the Acropolis close to, the Odion Iródou Attikou that is a Roman theatre from the second century AD, and also known to be as the Herodeion. The auditorium generally opens on summer evenings for the Athens Festival and creates an unmatched atmosphere of classical music and drama.