Legacy & The Road Ahead: Sustaining The Festival For The Next 25 Years

Dear friends,

We’re writing this with a full heart and immense gratitude. Our 25th-anniversary festival was unforgettable – not just because of the incredible performances, shows, parties, and workshops, but because of all your joyful faces, your laughter, and the stories and feedback you shared with us.

For twenty-five years we’ve watched the International Eressos Women’s Festival grow from a simple idea – to bring women together under the Greek sun – into a major production that takes a full year of work. We’ve seen friends become family, artists become lifelong collaborators, and our tiny corner of Skala Eressos become a home-away-from-home for countless women from around the world. To everyone who has had faith in us – our team, volunteers, artists, local partners, and the women who travel so far to be here – thank you. We are incredibly proud of what we’ve built together.

What We’ve Achieved – Together

This past anniversary edition showed the scale we now operate at. We welcomed artists, DJs, and facilitators from dozens of countries, hosted over a hundred and fifty events across multiple venues, and kept the programme running safely and smoothly thanks to a brilliant, patient volunteer crew and incredibly supportive local businesses. That doesn’t happen by accident; it’s a year-round commitment.

The Production Reality (And Why “Sustainable” Matters)

You see a week or so in September. Behind it is a 12-month professional production: contracting and communicating with international artists and facilitators; managing venues and spaces; securing insurance and permits; orchestrating complex travel; running year-round marketing and design across all platforms; and keeping everyone safe.

Your wristband – from €125 – helps fund that year-round work, including:

• High-Quality Artists: Investing in world-class talent, that may include compensation, travel, accommodation, and hospitality.
• Professional Staffing: Paying dedicated staff who spend 12 months on planning, scheduling, security, and complex logistics.
• Technical Infrastructure: Venue rental, stage construction, top-tier sound, lighting, and other necessary features.
• Year-Round Operations: Insurance, permits, legal fees, and administrative costs essential for such a major event.

As the quality and scale of the festival have grown, so have our costs. Our responsibility is to make choices that are sustainable – for fair wristband pricing, for artists and volunteers, for our village, and most importantly, for the long term.

Two Weeks, Shorter Weeks, and What Comes Next

Two weeks is part of our history, and we love it too. However, in recent years, we learned that a shorter, high-impact format delivers stronger quality while keeping prices accessible. We returned to two weeks for the 25th anniversary because milestones matter – and it was magical. But doing that every year isn’t sustainable.

So for 2026, we’re returning to our proven, high-quality model, running from 9–19 September 2026. This focused programme allows us to concentrate our resources entirely on creating a high-impact experience, featuring world-class artists and events. Crucially, the decision to run a shorter edition is not about savings; it’s about reallocating funds away from fixed logistical costs for those extra days and directing them straight into the quality of the core programme. This approach enables us to fully invest in our incredible artists, look after our volunteers, pay professional staff, and – most importantly – keep wristbands accessible while guaranteeing high energy from the first night to the last.

Gratitude Where It’s Due

To our team – Liz, Antonia, Luisa, Funda, Sara, Lainy, Florence – thank you for your invaluable hard work, talent and dedication in making this festival possible. To our volunteers: your patience and care are the festival’s heartbeat. To local venues, partners and authorities, and to the businesses displaying the “Sappho Women – Official Sponsor” sticker – thank you for standing with us. And to every woman who shared her talent, and every guest who made the journey: you are the reason we keep this going.

How You Can Help Us Write the Next Chapter

If you want to secure the festival’s future:

• Buy your wristband early (and bring a friend).
• If you’re able to go further, we’re designing new Festival Friend and Sappho Supporter options to deepen support for the year-round production (details coming soon).
• Support our Official Sponsors when you eat, drink, and shop in the village.

We’ll keep listening – to attendee feedback, to local businesses, to our volunteers – and we’ll keep publishing clear updates. Our promise is simple: to remain accessible, provide high quality, and keep the festival sustainable, so we’re still here in another twenty-five years, welcoming old friends and meeting new ones in the magical birthplace of Sappho.

With love and gratitude,

Wendy & Ioanna
Sappho Women

#sapphowomen2025 #sapphowomen2026 #gratitude #thankyou #skalaeressos #theroadahead #sustainable #internationaleressoswomensfestival