Attendance at Limassol wine festival exceeds expectations

The Limassol Wine Festival, a staple of the town’s history, which kicked off on October 9 and will end on October 16, is exceeding expectations in terms of turnout of visitors, according to Limassol municipality’s cultural affairs official, Skevi Antoniadou.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday, Antoniadou said that, despite the difficulties posed by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the event, on its 60^th anniversary, attracted visitors en masse, surprising even organisers and vendors.

“The opening night, which featured a tribute concert for Stelios Kazantzidis and Dimitris Mitropanos, saw 2,500 people attending, a number that no one could predict,” Antoniadou said.

“Every night, all events are at full capacity and on Sunday we even ran out of wine at the stands. Simply put, the town was looking forward to a get together and to celebrate after a hard period for everyone, individuals and businesses alike.”

Antoniadou reassured that all measures in place to protect the public from the coronavirus were being respected.

“Of course, that prevents the festival from being like in previous years, we had to limit the public presence in all events and activities and remind people to keep their distance from each other.

“However, despite everything, the response was simply amazing.”

Antoniadou added that preparations are already underway as far as Christmas is concerned and that the town’s traditional lighting of the tree will likely be scheduled around the end of November.

“The Carnival, the Wine Festival and the Christmas celebration and markets are incredibly important events for Limassol and for Cyprus in general. That is why seeing so many people at this year’s Wine Festival fills me with joy and anticipation for all the town’s future events.”

On Tuesday night, the Limassol dance and culture club “Dionysos” will perform traditional folk songs and dances with the participation of artists Babis Tsertos of Sofia Papatzoglou and Petros Kouloumis.