Review of the 5th Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival /Science Games October 17-19 2025
Exhibitions, workshops, and puzzle competitions | impressive experiments | hands-on activities | lectures | walks and guided tours | artistic events and various other innovative activities…
An anniversary festival was concluded, a large multi-themed event where puzzles played with science. Culture met Education, Technology intertwined with Nature, and Innovation competed with Ingenuity.
This bold endeavour could not have been achieved without the selfless participation of over 60 academic teachers, researchers, educators, and artists from universities, research institutes, and educational organizations in the country and abroad, who once again shared the vision and enthusiasm of the organizers.
By utilizing their scientific knowledge and experience, they designed and presented original scientific activities with entertaining aspects, covering many areas of the mainly scientific disciplines, stimulating the interest of both young and old to understand modern scientific concepts.
This year too, the island literally flooded with visitors of all ages. It became the centre of scientific knowledge and culture, maintaining the enthusiasm of the island’s students, the local community, as well as students and teachers from Rhodes, Symi, Kos, and Athens, who experienced a true festival of joy and science!
They tried and solved many of the puzzles that Pantazis Houlis and all the participating puzzle-makers/puzzle enthusiasts patiently guided them towards their solution, showcasing the educational value of puzzles.
It is worth mentioning the significant role played by the morning educational programs that were specially designed for the students of the island and presented at their school before the festival. Once again, the participation of the children in the interactive interdisciplinary education workshops and their eagerness to learn was impressive.
We will not go into detail about all the notable activities of the festival, as this was already reflected in previous press releases. However, we would like to focus on some essential points of the two keynote speeches:
Dr. Athanasia Athanasiou, head of the smart materials team at the research centre in Genoa/Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, presented striking “evidence” about the “plastic era” we are living in and discussed issues related to the environment, humanity’s footprint on our planet, and the solutions that young people and future generations can develop for a cleaner world through “smart materials”. She concluded with the following advice: ”Curiosity is the driving force of science”. I would like to encourage young people to be responsible and make conscious decisions about their future.
The Professor of Informatics and Telecommunications at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Yannis Ioannidis, spoke about one of the most contemporary “puzzles”: Artificial intelligence (AI). “The biggest challenge is not only technological. It is understanding the context in which we use artificial intelligence. If we do not establish a proper institutional and ethical framework, we are at risk. If we do, it will be just another tool like all the others”. “Through proper education, society must be informed about what AI is, what it can offer, what we should be wary of”. ”After five years of organizing events, we can confidently make a brief assessment. Despite the excessive obstacles and the major practical difficulties we faced in this demanding organization, the progress was so unpredictable that we ourselves were astonished. We managed to:
- To gradually attract the cream of the crop of the academic, scientific, and research community.
- To give young researchers the opportunity to try out innovative educational programs with unconventional teaching methods.
- To make the island the centre of knowledge, joy, and learning for three days.
- To attract students, teachers, and parents from neighbouring islands and other regions of Greece, in numbers exceeding more than half of the island’s population.
- To expand its geographical reach (we organized three “satellite” festivals in Athens, Patras, and Xanthi).
- To enjoy the first tangible examples of the festival’s impact on children who had already participated in previous events. Students from schools in Kos, Athens, and Rhodes transformed knowledge and imagination into creative presentations!
- To finally prove that this small remote island of the Dodecanese can create and export its own culture and that puzzles are not just a game but also a means of understanding the world.
The organization was carried out by Pantazis Houlis, a mathematician and founder of the Megisti Puzzle Museum, and the EN.I.G.MA Association (Union of Ideas, Puzzles, and Mathematics) who since 2016 had planted the seeds of a Puzzle Festival, in collaboration with Eleni Grammatikopoulou, known for her long-standing contribution to science communication. The Festival was co-organized with the South Aegean Region and supported by the Municipality of Megisti.
Valuable supporters were the Ministries of: National Defence, Culture, Education, Religion & Sports, Shipping and Island Policy/General Secretariat of the South Aegean, the Greek National Tourism Organization (EOT), the General Secretariat for Research & Technology, and the Embassy of Australia in Athens, which supported and placed the festival under their auspices.
Heartfelt thanks also to the private sponsors, who supported this great voluntary effort once again this year, demonstrating their love and trust.
Similar support came from a large number of media outlets/sponsors from Greece and abroad through a series of announcements, interviews, mentions, and features.
We thank the local authorities, the teaching staff of all educational levels on the island, and the volunteers for their warm support.
We conclude with the wish that every new event provides young visitors with the opportunity to cultivate their innate curiosity and imagination, and to receive so many concentrated stimuli that—one never knows!—they may even shape their future path. And we continue… See you at the 6th Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival!