Nicosia, Cyprus. The 29th University of Cyprus Cultural Festival will begin Friday in the courtyard of the Axiothea mansion with a programme of artistic events including dance, shadow theatre, silent cinema, theatre, music, performances and workshops. The festival will feature emerging and established artists from Cyprus and abroad.
Festival programme
The programme includes traditional, contemporary and classical music, jazz, ancient and contemporary theatre, and workshops designed for children and adults. Organisers said the events are intended to create a cohesive cultural setting where tradition and experimentation, as well as local and international artistic voices, meet.
Featured artists
Among the featured artists are Nabu Pera, recently nominated for the German Record Critics’ Awards, and Cretan musician Stelios Petrakis, whose latest album remained in the Top 10 of the World Music Charts Europe for two months. Also appearing are Petrakis’ collaborators Bijan Chemirani of Iran and France and Efrén López of Spain, composer, guitarist and performer Antonis Mitzelos, jazz vibraphonist Dimitris Angelakis and his trio from Greece, and Cyprus artist Koulis Theodorou, who will present songs with lyrics by Alkis Alkaeos.
Additional events
The first part of the programme also includes a contemporary dance work by Panayiotis Tofi, a screening of Italian silent cinema with live piano by Andrea Goretti, and performances of Cypriot zurna and davul traditions by Kemal Devetzi and Aziz Kahraman.
Opening events
The festival opens on Friday with Nabu Pera’s music performance Soundscapes of Nicosia. On June 7, Chinese calligraphy and paper-cutting workshops will be held for children and adults, focusing on two forms of Chinese folk art recognised by Unesco as elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The workshops will be free, conducted in English and require booking.
June performances
On June 10, the storytelling shadow theatre and live music performance The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde will be presented for audiences of all ages. On June 12, a dramatised reading based on texts from The Gaza Monologues (2023) and Beckett’s Not I (1972), translated into Greek and Turkish, will be staged.
On June 14, Dante Alighieri’s L’Inferno will be screened with live piano accompaniment, highlighting the first Italian feature-length film. Italian pianist and composer Andrea Goretti will improvise during the 65-minute screening.
On June 16, the festival will present the music-theatre production Stubborn Head: The Alkis Alkaeos I Knew, based on the book by Miltos Paschalidis and paying tribute to a lyricist of contemporary Greek music.
The programme will also include the contemporary dance production Tormentful Invisibility by Panayiotis Tofi. On June 21, young musicians from the University of Cyprus Music Academy will present the concert Dancing Through Sound.