Corporate vasilopita cutting in Greece: a planning guide

The vasilopita is a New Year pie or cake named after Saint Basil, whose feast day is 1 January. A coin, the flouri, is baked inside it, and whoever finds it in their slice is said to be lucky all year. Families cut theirs on New Year’s Day; companies, associations and public bodies cut their own once everyone is back from the holidays, through January and often into early February.

Because every company holds its cutting in the same few weeks, venues, musicians and technical crews get booked early. If you want a particular date, book it before Christmas.

The format decides almost everything else: venue, length, equipment and cost. Choose it first.

• 6 weeks before: date, format, approximate guest numbers and budget. Decide whether colleagues in other cities will join remotely.
• 4–5 weeks before: venue and catering, music, sound and lighting, photography and video. Ask the venue for a floor plan and a list of the equipment it provides.
• 2–3 weeks before: invitations, the pie order, a gift for the coin, speakers and how long each one talks. If there is a year-in-review presentation, set a deadline for the file.
• The week of the event: final numbers, a running order with times, and one person from your company who makes last-minute decisions.
• On the day: set-up and sound check before guests arrive. Test the speech microphone and the presentation from the spot where the speaker will stand.

1. Welcome. Coffee or drinks and low music while people arrive. This gives latecomers time without pushing back the speech.
2. Speech. The head of the company thanks the team, recalls the highlights of the past year and sets out the goals for the new one. Keep it short, as the cutting comes next.
3. Cutting the pie. The first slice usually goes to Christ, followed by Saint Basil and the company. Then come slices for departments or staff. The order varies between companies, so agree it in advance with whoever does the cutting.
4. The coin. Whoever finds the flouri is the lucky one of the year and usually receives a gift. Decide the gift beforehand, for example an extra day off or a voucher, so it can be handed over on the spot.
5. Music and food. After the cutting the mood relaxes and the music can go up.

With a large group, one pie is cut in front of everyone and the rest are served ready-sliced. Decide whether there will be one coin or one in each pie, so you know how many gifts to prepare.

Sound for the speech. In a room full of people catching up after the holidays, an unamplified voice only reaches the front rows. You need a wireless microphone and speakers that cover the whole room. If two or three people will speak, add a second microphone so nobody waits for it to be passed along. We can set up sound for speeches and presentations on its own, without any other service.

Light on the pie table. The cutting is the most photographed moment of the event. A dark room or a table in a corner gives dark, grainy photos. Put the table where everyone can see it, and light it.

Screen and stage. If the speech comes with a presentation, you need a screen or projector visible from the whole room. In a large venue, a low stage helps people see the speaker.

Decoration. Your brand colours and logo behind the cutting table appear in every photo you publish afterwards. See our work in event decoration, lighting and sound.

Colleagues in other cities. With live streaming, people in another office or working from home can watch the speech and the cutting as they happen, which makes the event hybrid. For the speech to come through clearly, the stream’s audio should be taken from the sound desk, not from a phone in the room.

During the welcome and the speech, the music stays low so people can talk. An acoustic, jazz or lounge band, or a DJ at low volume, sets the mood without drowning out conversation. The music stops for the speech and the cutting and starts again afterwards.

If the cutting turns into a party, the choice depends on your team. For pop, rock and disco hits there is One Take The Band, or DJ & Singer, a DJ paired with a live vocalist. For a Greek-style celebration there are bands with a Greek repertoire. You will find all of them on our corporate event bands and DJs page. Our own crew covers the musicians’ sound and lighting, with a sound check before guests arrive.

Photos of the cutting end up in the internal newsletter, on the intranet and on the company’s LinkedIn. Give the photographer a list of shots that must not be missed:

• the speaker at the lectern, with the logo behind them
• the cutting, from the front, with people gathered around the table
• the moment someone finds the coin, and the gift being handed over
• group photos by department

A short highlights video works well on the company’s social media and website. See what our corporate photography and corporate videography include.

We work in two ways, depending on the company: we handle the whole event, planning and coordination (event planning & coordination), or only the production services you need (event production).

Most companies ask us for:

• a band, together with the sound system, the band’s backline, professional lighting and a stage
• a photographer and a videographer to cover the event

Production elements are often added too, depending on the look you want: LED walls, decorative lighting with disco balls and fairy lights, other installations and special constructions, tables and chairs. We also find the right venue and arrange catering through our partners. With a wide network of partners in both Thessaloniki and Athens, we can cover almost anything a corporate vasilopita cutting needs.

• Entersoft One: two events, one in Athens and one in Thessaloniki
• Pfizer, in Thessaloniki
• German-Hellenic Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK)

One Take The Band played both Entersoft One events (see the two nights). For the German-Hellenic Chamber we also covered its January 2026 conference with photography and video.

The cost of a corporate vasilopita cutting depends on:

• the number of guests and the format of the event
• the venue and catering, which you can book yourselves or we can arrange through our partners
• length and time of day: a lunchtime cutting at the office costs less than an evening with live music
• the band and how many musicians it has
• technical equipment: sound, lighting, screen, stage, live streaming
• hours of photography and video, and what is delivered
• the city, and travel for the crew

On our corporate event planning page you can send a request with the date, the city and the services you need. We reply with a proposal and a cost for each service.