Saturday 18 May 2024 19:30
On Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19, Generations, the music festival that brings together different generations, is back at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) for a fourth year, featuring a diverse program and setting up a meeting point for young and old alike.
For two whole days, the SNFCC will be filled with music and activities in all its spaces, the midpoint being the Great Lawn: from the Playgrounds and the Water Jets to the Mediterranean Garden, the Outdoor Games Area, the Dome and, of course, the Canal, a whole array of options will be available to both parents and children.
The festival starts at 11.00 in the morning, with music and DJ sets by local and international DJs. This year, adults will have the opportunity to introduce the young into the musical choices of two legendary Brits: the 2024 Generations festival headliners are Don Letts and Eddie Piller! At the same time, kids can choose from a variety of activities, in an unforgettable two-day event, in the course of which they will dance with colorful hoops, have fun with giant soap bubbles, stilt walkers and acrobats, sow plants, paint, kayak, play basketball, and capture their favorite moments using fun props at the photo booth. And all this, with their faces adorned with spring colors and drawings by face painting.
Generations, a genuine celebration for the entire family and a standing Athens rendezvous for a colorful weekend at Stavros Niarchos Park, full of joy and carefreeness, is staged with free admission thanks to a grant of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Director, musician, DJ, radio producer, social commentator, husband and father: whichever title preceded his name, Don Letts has always functioned better beyond the rules.
Letts’s reputation has been established both in music and film, with a substantial body of work dating from the late 1970s to the present day. Born in Britain in the mid-1950s, he navigated from a very young age between the punk and reggae scenes of London, earning his reputation as “Rebel Dread” – with this nickname following him to this day. He became close friends with Bob Marley; participated as manager of The Slits on The Clash’s White Riot Tour, to then become one of the most acclaimed directors, initially of MTV-era video clips and then of music documentaries.
He managed, almost single-handedly, to turn an entire punk generation to reggae, creating, while a DJ at the legendary punk club The Roxy in 1977, his first film, The Punk Rock Movie, featuring the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and many others. During the 1980s and 1990s, he directed more than 300 music videos before turning to documentaries, shooting films about Gil Scott-Heron, The Jam, Sun Ra, The Clash, and George Clinton.
At the music level, he created the band Basement Five, released a single with members of John Lydon’s P.I.L., and collaborated with members of Trouble Funk. In the mid-1980s, he created the Big Audio Dynamite (B.A.D.) band together with Mick Jones (former member of The Clash). In the early 1990s, Don left the B.A.D to form the Screaming Target, and went on to do several appearances as a DJ.
Artworks of his have been exhibited at The Kitchen (NYC), the Institute of Contemporary Art, NFT London; he has been honored at the BAM Festival of Brooklyn and the Milan Film Festival; and in March 2003, he won a Grammy Award for the documentary The Clash: Westway to the World.
Currently, he is presenting a weekly radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music, titled “Culture Clash Radio,” and continues to do DJ sets in England and Europe.
Saturday 18/05,19.30 Great Lawn, Stavros Niarchos Park
Free admission
