THE LOCATION OF THE FESTIVAL
 

Those that use their own transportation can fly directly either from abroad or from the Athens (55 min), the Thessaloniki airport (70 min) and Crete. The journey by sea from Piraeus takes 12 hours and there are 1-2 ships traveling every day.

For information on the flights timetable one can contact the Olympic Airways offices in Athens
For the ships timetable you can call the Piraeus Port Authority or the Rhodes Port Authority.

Rhodes lies at the southeastern corner of the Aegean, very close to the Turkish shore, and it is the biggest island of the Dodecanese. It is a world famous holiday resort, with lots of sunlight (the sun shines approximately 9 months a year) and numerous beaches. As far as quality is concerned, the beach of the city of Rhodes itself is excellent too. It lies right next to the port, at the area with the most and most luxurious hotels. The city has all the necessary services and infrastructures, an up-to-date hospital and a… casino for those who practice this sport.

Rhodes, though, is also well known for its rich cultural heritage, of which the old medieval city is the most outstanding sample. The architecture of the buildings and the stately clusters of towers and bulwarks constitute a unique housing unit that has been preserved and inhabited for 6 centuries. The city, which was built in the 15^th century, contains an impressive wall 5 km long, the big Palace of the Grand Masters, the lodgings of the Knights, impressive buildings and villas that have been turned into museums today, churches, Muslim buildings and mosques, tenement houses, a market, all linked to the history and the identities of the peoples who inhabited it.

The visitor will find plenty of archaeological sights on the island that has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, but the finds date back to the Bronze Age (1550-1100 B.C.) while in the late antiquity the cities reached their pinnacle in the 4^th and 5^th centuries B.C. Apart from Rhodes, another popular destination is the city of Lindos, with its imposing medieval castle (built in the place of the ancient Acropolis) and the more recent traditional built-up area with its white houses, the cobbled yards, and the mansions, many of which date back to the 15^th century.

Because of its geographical position and due to a systematic effort by the local authorities and the State and despite high tourism (it receives the largest number of tourists next to Crete) the environment of Rhodes is preserved very well and its shores are the cleanest in the Mediterranean, with the exception of the multitudinous popular resorts of the eastern coast, where both the infrastructures and the general image show a plain degradation of the landscape and a fading of the local identity.
In the list of the “environmental” sights, one must include the “Rodini” park in the outer city, 3 kilometres from the city of Rhodes, as well as the famous Valley of the Butterflies, 25 kilometres from the city of Rhodes at the western coast.

Finally, June, the month of the festival, is a convenient season, not only for swimming at the beautiful beaches, but also for an acquaintance with the very rich inland, the manifold nature and the numerous villages.