2025 Impact Intl. UK/Euro Honoree: Giannis Paltoglou

GIANNIS PALTOGLOU
Artistic Director
Ejekt Festival / Detox Events

DOING HIS PART TO OPEN UP GREECE TO A-LIST TOURS

Giannis Paltoglou, artistic director of Ejekt Festival and production company Detox Events, has played an important part in opening up the Greek market to international tours. Case in point: Green Day, who celebrated their first performance in Greece during this year’s 20th edition of Ejekt in the capital of Athens. Ludovico Einaudi (Sept. 26) and Robbie Williams (Oct. 2) both performed at Athens’ Panathenaic Stadium this year, a venue built in 330 BC, one of the country’s many archaeological monuments, and the world’s only stadium built entirely of marble.

Greece is full of spectacular sites, including the location of Paltoglou’s very first live concert, “Vaya Con Dios at the Lycabettus Theatre. That was the beginning. From then on, I was looking up all international shows that were coming to Greece in the early 1990s, trying not to miss a single one. Blowing all my money on music magazines and records was a really enjoyable hobby back then, and I never thought this would become my professional path,” he recalls.

Getting to this point was hard work. Greece was at the very center of the worldwide recession that began in 2008 and swept across Europe in the following decade. And just as the Greek people started to see “a glimmer of hope in 2019, COVID-19 arrived and disrupted the live business,” Paltoglou recalls. A crisis presents opportunity, though, and Paltoglou says Detox established themselves as one of the largest talent buyers in Greece “by being patient, making strategic moves, and having a plan to use flexible tickets for the local market.”

“Being in a small market like Greece, which is growing year by year, with many international artists from the A-tier coming here, is encouraging,” says Paltoglou, who is “really proud of the vibrant local audience culture and how warm and welcoming they are when you bring the right artist to them.” For Paltoglou, “genuine success isn’t just a sold-out show in Greece; it’s to be a significant stop for all the big tours, and knowing I played a part in bringing about that change.”