It’s been three weeks since the 4the Climbing Festival, a festival that was proven to be greatly missed, ended. Its return brought joy both to the organisers as well as the participants of the event.

The festival is organised by the Municipality of South Kynouria in collaboration with the Prefecture of Peloponnese. It aims at attracting visitors and promoting climbing, while at the same time presenting Leonidio as a place that meets all the requirements necessary for a top climbing destination.

During the 4^th Festival we had the privilege of meeting Dierdre Wolownick (AlexHonnold’s Mum, American), Anak Verhoeven (Belgium) and  Nils Favre, who were our honored guests. The programme included yoga, climbing lessons for beginners, presentations and talks from our guest climbers, a workshop from Kostas Grafanakis on ‘the psychology of the fall’ and a workshop by Aris Theodoropoulos on the ‘opening of new routes’. Throughout the festival there was a photo exhibition in memory of Yiannis Torellis.  We also had the premier of the film Bravo Marcel (Remy). On the Friday of the festival the traditional dance troupe of Leonidio presented traditional dances wearing the traditional Tsakonian dancing costume, which impressed everyone, and afterwards a meal with dishes made mainly from the tsakonian aubergine was served. At the end of the evening the winner of the Grand Prize was drawn. On the Saturday Nils and Anak held their presentation and then the winners of the Climbing Marathon were announced, who received useful climbing equipment as prizes. The evening ended with the wonderful Nina Mazani and her band singing hits from the 80s and 90s.

The organization committee of the Festival would like to thank everyone who contributed to the development of Leonidio as a climbing destination. It is out of love for our hometown that we aim to make it one of the most organized and safest climbing destinations in the world. We would like to further thank all the volunteers and our sponsors for their vital contribution in making the festival a great success.

We can’t wait for the next festival to come.

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Participants

Winner Grand Prize: Daniel Drexel

The participants of the climbing marathon received many gifts of climbing equipment, ropes, helmets, quick draws, waterproof jackets, chalk bag.

A big thank you to the companies (Prorock Climbing, Resolve lab) who attended our festival and contributed by giving gifts to the winners of the Marathon. Thank all sponsors for their offers.