The Amari Green Festival returns for its 10th edition at the historic villages of Amari and the slopes of Mt. Psiloritis. From July 18 to 21, 2025, the valley of Amari in Rethymno becomes a living, breathing cultural and environmental hub. From village to village, the festival transforms the entire area into an open, collaborative space that honors nature, heritage, and community.

What began as an initiative to showcase Amari’s natural and cultural wealth and foster networks of cooperation among institutions, artists, locals, and cultural organizations has now grown into one of Crete’s most beloved festivals; a true celebration in the heart of Rethymno.

“In Amari, memory is something that stays with us forever,” says Viki Vamiedaki, a proud Rethymnian and long-time festival supporter. “At Amari Green Festival, the local cuisine and ingredients are our recipe for success. Every year, grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and neighbors from our villages arriving dressed in their best, fragrant and smiling, to showcase their skills.”

“What use their pots, pans, and jars with real artistry. For ten years now, they’ve been making traditional blood sausages (omaties), preparing snails in countless variations, boiling sweet and sour xinohondros made with fresh milk, rolling out phyllo for pies fried in hot olive oil, crafting ornate wedding biscuits, kneading bread, firing up wood ovens, and making ntakos. Even when we provide ingredients or cookware, many prefer their own. This year, they’ll add festive pork-based delicacies to the table – yet another edible memory for visitors lucky enough to taste them. I’ve seen people moved to tears by these flavors. Some because the food stirs memories, others by the feeling that they’ve just created another one.”

Since its modest beginnings ten years ago, the festival has evolved into a major cultural institution on Crete. This year, it expands even further, featuring more than 40 events across the municipality of Amari, featuring local organizations, participants from across Greece, and even international guests.

The theme of the 2025 festival, “How Beautiful Were the Village Feasts,” is a nostalgic journey into the traditions of old Cretan panigyria. Through a diverse program that will unfold across multiple villages, the festival pays tribute to the roots of communal celebration: spontaneous music nights in village cafés and squares, communal tables, the sounds of the Cretan lyra, and generations dancing hand in hand.

Photo exhibitions, hands-on workshops, culinary revivals, storytelling sessions, roundtables, and concerts combine to create a powerful celebration of memory and culture. The festival highlights the panigyri not just as entertainment, but as a meaningful social and cultural experience that connects communities and helps pass on ancestral wisdom; it is a vibrant example of sustainable cultural development.

Among many highlights, visitors are invited to taste the flavors of Amari through workshops that will focus on traditional sausage making (sausages, apakia, syglina), Cretan trahanas, and handmade bread baked in wood-fired ovens. They will learn about the region’s famous pies – from myzithropita to saracopita and neropita – and enjoy traditional pork recipes.

Besides food, the festival features workshops on embroidery and ceramics using Amari’s local clay, as well as eco-activities that celebrate the valley’s natural beauty: walks through the Melissokipos (“bee garden”), bike rides through the countryside, and presentations on the work of Archelon, the Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece.

As night falls, the valley will echo with Cretan traditional music and more contemporary sounds, filling the villages with warmth, rhythm, and joy.

For more information and the full program, visit the official website of the Municipality of Amari: www.amari.gr

Originally published in Gastronomos magazine.