Walking through the narrow streets of Ermoupolis or Ano Syrah, you can still hear the sounds of Francosiriani passing through an open window.

Fifty years since the death of Markos Vamvakaris and 100 years since the catastrophe in Asia Minor, this year marks the sixth year of the “Rebetikou Festival” on Syros, which aims to remind the public that the folk music of cities and ordinary people are a rich, wonderful sight, deeply rooted in Asia Minor and a moving cultural tradition that deserves, must and can survive.

What made rebetiko musicians once great? Musician and leader Antonis Maragos answers us by turning his gaze to the city of Ermoupolis, to the urban environment that gave birth to this musical idiom. “Our cities no longer have the touching, charming everyday images that they once had,” he tells us, adding that “our daily life now revolves around imaginary dreams of a lifestyle that we can’t even touch. But the rebetiko was not ashamed. He accepted and sang of what man really is, his truth, his passions, his poverty, his difficulties and his bitterness.

Can this music still be about us? “It will always concern us, because its subject matter, love, romance, friendship, family, strangeness, desire for the unsatisfied, is eternally human and real,” he says, and turning his gaze back to Ermoupolis, he speaks of the area. and his performances, which, although they exist, are gradually being lost to some extent. He also speaks of the tavern, a natural environment, as he says, rebetiko, “which has gradually lost its role.”

We ask him when and where such a large anthology of urban rebetiko songs began to be born, numbering about 15,000 entries. “In our large urban centers,” he replies pointedly, but also in Micrasia, where the roots of Rebet music can be traced. “In discography, the beginning of rebetiko can be found mainly in Smyrnaika and Politika – and then comes the great Piraeus school, which gradually assimilates Asia Minor. Where, in the end, Marcos became great and created,” he adds, “of course, taking precious memories of Sira with me. Marcos’ attitude towards what he wrote was based on experience.”

In the discography, the beginning of rebetiko can be found mainly in the songs “Smirneyka” and “Politics”.

Marcos Vamvakaris went to Piraeus, and refugees from Asia Minor arrived in Syra. Refugees and internal migrations that brought musical influences from fertile crucibles. “Syrah has a special relationship with Asia Minor,” emphasizes Antonis Maragos, and this year the event has a very strong element of Asia Minor, which can be seen on the very first day (29/8) with the performance of Maria Katinari and the performance “My name is Smyrna” , and continues with the musical workshop of Petros Kulumis (30-31/8), a great performer and teacher, an expert in the style of the Asia Minor musical tradition. It ends with the Chanturi section of the reading room of Agiasos Lesvos (1/9).

Along with the musical events of the festival, there will also be an exhibition of folk musical instruments made by famous master instrumentalists, since “without instruments there can be no popular music, and without popular music they would have no reason to exist”, because. Antonis Maragos says.

The festival will end with a concert (2/9) of the local music school “En Hordais ki Organois”, of which Stavros Harchakos is the president and which is an injection of life for the tradition of folk music in Syros. The students of the school and their teachers will present the works of Markos Vamvakaris and Stavros Xarchakos, as well as Mikis Theodorakis, since this day marks exactly one year since his death.