Since the emergence of the Greek economic and sociopolitical crisis in 2009, and the subsequent rise of neofascism and xenophobia, cultural production and music in particular have been caught up in national and media debates. Based on ethnographic fieldwork over the last ten years, this paper will examine the ways in which urban-folk music nightclubs in Athens are related to the emergence of political and social expressions of neofascism.

Dr Ioannis Tsioulakis is a Lecturer in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology at Queen’s University Belfast. He recently co-edited a volume entitled Musicians and their Audiences: Performance, Speech and Mediation (with Elina Hytonen-Ng, Routledge 2016), and has a forthcoming monograph with Routledge entitled Musicians in Crisis: An ethnography from Athens, Greece.Ioannis is also an active ensemble director, arranger and pianist.