Onassis Stegi at Athens Pride 2026
Stay Awake.
Don’t close your eyes to homophobia, transphobia, and intolerance. Even if it doesn’t affect you, it nevertheless does.
Onassis Stegi returns to Athens Pride 2026, with a campaign aimed at increasing visibility. It is a call for all of us to remain vigilant, recognizing that this awareness is our greatest strength. In this campaign, we witness three instances of abuse against the LGBTQI+ community in different environments: within the family, at school, and in public space. As the victims are attacked, those around them appear to be in a state of slumber, asleep and unresponsive to what is happening. But at some point, they wake up. They turn their gaze to the perpetrator—a gaze filled with power and even greater impact—bringing with it the winds of change. And so the violence stops. Because if we stay awake, we can reverse the course of history.
Onassis Stegi stands with the LGBTQI+ community through actions and interventions in Athens and around the world. In 2015, it made its own coming out by supporting Athens Pride for the first time. Since then, it has been #Present every year, joyfully witnessing a growing number of participants. On the occasion of Athens Pride 2018, Afroditi Panagiotakou, the Artistic Director of the Onassis Foundation, spoke with two teenagers about fundamental human rights, answering ‘tough’ questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2020, it spread the message “Athens Home For All” to every corner of the city, so that everyone could feel safe being themselves. In 2022, it declared, “It’s love that makes a family,” launching a campaign of love and inclusion in support of the fundamental rights of same-sex families in Greece, helping pave the way for the passage of the civil marriage law. In 2025, it invited us not to look away from homophobia, transphobia, and intolerance. This year, we #StayAwake
