Heart of Nicosia immersed in culture as Faneromenis festival returns

The Faneromeni Arts Festival returns to old Nicosia this summer bringing a series of film screenings and theatre, music and dance performances. The Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation continues the tradition of hosting the annual summer happening, again opening the city’s largest venue for Faneromeni 22.

From mid-June until the end of September, the multidimensional interactive arts festival will take place in the open-air amphitheatre of the Cultural Foundation, which aspires to become the city’s most vibrant cultural nucleus. A unique amalgamation of various artistic disciplines and artists from different areas is scheduled for the 2022 edition, resulting in a series of events appealing to all ages.

The newly formed band Trio Rondine will open the season of summer events with the concert Songs like Swallows on Thursday, June 23. Their repertoire includes traditional and contemporary songs from Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Corsica, Syria, Lebanon, Croatia, France, Spain, Morocco, Libya and Egypt, and well-known themes from the most remarkable movies. In their performance, the band will also present their original unreleased material inspired by the musical traditions of the Mediterranean.

The next event will follow on June 30 with the theatrical performance ‘Ioannis Kapodistrias: in the footsteps of a great leader’ produced by the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Greece. The play is a journey through the life of the great politician, with stops to regard the most important events and the most important female figures he met along the way. A journey full of espionage and secret intrigue, but also dedication and fidelity to his goal – the liberation of the Greek nation.

On 14 July, the Macumba music band will present original compositions and arrangements inspired by Latin jazz and world music. The local band mainly plays a fusion of Latin, Brazilian, Spanish, jazz and traditional music offering a different approach to Latin music. Expect lively beats to the sounds of Brazilian funk, samba, rumba, guaguanco and Afro-Cuban, through the contemporary jazz aesthetic.

A couple of days later, on July 28, the performance ‘O topos en o adropos’ will take place at Faneromeni22, combining dance and music. The performance is inspired by the monumental work of the great Cypriot painter Adamantios Diamantis, The World of Cyprus, a charcoal and acrylic painting on Irish linen comprising eleven panels currently exhibited at the AG Leventis Gallery. July 28’s performance will revive elements of Cypriot folk tradition through modern dance, and take audiences on a journey of memory, celebration and nostalgia.

The festival will conclude on September 15 with a very special event titled The Magic Circle by the Yasemin group, involving a multitude of renowned artists, all of whom stand out in their fields. The inspiration for this show comes from the magical world of the circus with a large and impressive production with actors, dancers, musicians, jugglers, acrobats, clowns and a circus artist-acrobat from Colombia, giving space to artistic creation.

In between the performances, the Cultural Foundation’s courtyard will once again be transformed into an outdoor summer cinema for children and grown-ups, with a series of screenings in collaboration with the Friends of Cinema Society. The screening agenda includes the film Encanto on July 7, and the documentary Eleonora’s Falcon – Life in Balance which will be screened twice, first on July 7 before Encanto, and then again on July 21. Jungle Cruise will be shown on July 21, Ghostbusters Afterlife on August 8 and lastly, Coco on September 8 to wrap up a whole summer of cultural events.

Faneromeni 22 Arts Festival

Annual summer festival with music, dance, theatre performances and cinema screenings. June 23-September 15. Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, Nicosia. 8pm or 9pm. Free entrance. www.boccf.org. Tel: 22-128157