An important meeting for Cretan music tradition takes place every year in the village of Gergeri at the end of August. The 'celebration of nature and humans' presents musicians that carry on the Cretan music tradition of askomantoura (a kind of bagpipe) and Cretan wind instruments. According to historical researches and sources from the Venetian period, askomantoura is one of the oldest musical instruments of Crete, which has lost its popularity in our days. The Cretan lyra, the most popular instrument in Crete today, is related to similar instruments of the East and it seems that it has Byzantine-eastern origins. It was probably introduced in Crete during the Turkish occupation, in the 17th-18th century.
In the frame of the celebration art exhibitions and symposiums are organized in order to promote research and the collection of valuable folk wind instruments.