Orchestra Popolare La Notte della Taranta Brings Salento’s Music to Athens

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The Orchestra Popolare La Notte della Taranta will perform at the Athens Concert Hall on Saturday, October 31, bringing the music, dance and traditions of Salento, a region in southern Italy, to the Greek capital. The performance will take place at 8 p.m. in the Alexandra Trianti Hall, offering audiences an introduction to one of Europe’s major celebrations of traditional music.

The ensemble is the official group of La Notte della Taranta (“Night of the Tarantula”), an annual summer festival that transforms Salento, in the southeastern region of Puglia, into a vast open-air stage for music, dancing and collective celebration.

At the heart of the performance is pizzica, a traditional dance known for its driving rhythms and energetic movement. Musicians, singers and dancers will bring to Athens a tradition rooted in the region’s cultural heritage, where music and dance have long served as powerful forms of collective expression.

Pizzica: A dance rooted in ritual

The history of pizzica is closely associated with tarantism, a folk ritual linked to the belief that a tarantula bite could cause a state of agitation, convulsions and uncontrollable movement. According to popular tradition, music and dance provided the only remedy, requiring those affected to dance continuously until they reached a state of release and purification.

Although the practice belongs to an older world of folk beliefs and rituals, its central idea remains part of pizzica’s cultural identity: rhythm can bring release, while dance can offer a means of emotional expression. The tradition has endured through generations, finding a new platform at La Notte della Taranta, where it reaches large audiences while maintaining its connection to the past.

A musical connection between Greece and southern Italy

The performance will also highlight the linguistic ties between Greece and southern Italy. Many of the ensemble’s songs are performed in Griko, a Greek-derived language traditionally spoken in villages of Grecìa Salentina, an area of Salento where traces of the region’s Greek linguistic heritage survive.

These songs offer a reminder of the longstanding cultural links between Greece and southern Italy. For audiences in Athens, the familiar sounds and linguistic echoes within an unfamiliar musical tradition may provide one of the evening’s most moving elements, revealing shared cultural threads across the Mediterranean.

Through its combination of live music, dance and centuries-old traditions, Orchestra Popolare La Notte della Taranta will bring the spirit of Salento to Athens, inviting audiences to experience a musical heritage that continues to connect communities across borders.

The performance is co-organized by Greece’s Ministry of Culture, the Embassy of Italy in Greece and Italy’s Ministry of Culture.

Information

• • Date: Saturday, October 31

• • Time: 8 p.m.

• • Venue: Alexandra Trianti Hall, Athens Concert Hall (Megaron)