Usually three days of the Holy Spirit marks the informal start of summer swimming, the temperature has already risen enough, the sea has warmed up, the bodies are ready to change tops and pants for bathing suits. Unless, of course, the road (and music) takes you to… high mountains. Since last Friday, more than ten thousand people have been in the vicinity of the Kalavryta ski center, at an altitude of 1700 meters, to camp and enjoy four days of musicians and other activities at the first Chelmos Mountain Festival.

Above us, the ski slopes (literally) were still holding snow. The temperature is low, cloudy, sometimes rainy. And what about him; Young – or less young – groups poured out onto the mountain slopes in search of the holy grail: a relatively good, level place for a tent among the last fir trees, on the edge of the alpine zone. Tarpaulins and nylons were deployed to keep out the rain, which, however, tended to stop shortly before the concerts began.

The first Helmos Mountain Festival ended successfully, in which Angelakas, Pavlidis, Mistakidis and others took part.

The stage, set in the parking lot, right next to the chalet, was filled with the leading names of the Greek sound. Rapper Roman 729 stirred up the youth crowd with his harsh lyrics, and they were in the majority, before Pavlos Pavlidis and Yiannis Angelakas began to act one after another. The two “totems” of Greek rock were at their usual high level, moving more, of course, the older ones.

It’s Friday. On Saturday, after a storm filled the mountain with thunder and lightning, the sun even came out to greet the “summer” Hatzifragetas (“we guys sing our beach songs”), who brought with them a heady mix of reggae-rock-hip-hop that characterizes them. Half an hour before midnight, Thanasis Papakonstantinou took the stage with his large band, which includes such masters as Dimitris Mistakidis (guitar) and Kostantis Pistiolis (wind instruments), and also introduced us to the drawl of Alkyoni, who will accompany him this summer. Unique melodies, smoke generators, mysticism, a similar, and maybe even more solemn atmosphere the next night, Sokratis Malamas and Yannis Šarulis take the baton.

The festival in its first edition can certainly be described as a success. Some minor organizational problems (parking, camping, toilets) can be solved in the future and certainly did not deter the vast majority of sightseers. In addition, what we have seen these days in the Kalavryta mountains confirms the trend that more and more people want to prefer short trips to mountain destinations, rather than the corresponding (now very expensive) vacation on the islands. Festivals such as Helmos, but also Arvanitsa, Vovusa, Nestorio and others attract great artists and at the same time tens of thousands of spectators who actually respect the environment in general and economically stimulate local communities.