Summer staple celebrates 10 years

The Fengaros Festival returns to Kato Drys later this month although organisers promise some surprises

This summer season is rather unique. Not simply because cultural life has returned from its two-year hiatus but also because some of the island’s long-standing and highly-anticipated festivals celebrate important milestones. Fengaros is back this month with a promising line-up and festival experiences to celebrate its 10^th anniversary!

In its now-decade of existence, Fengaros Festival has become known for numerous distinctive elements. Bringing world-renowned musicians, curating experiences beyond the music stages and most certainly, for its memorable location at the amiable village of Kato Drys.

Production Manager and Artistic Director of Louvana Records respectively Andreas Trachonitis and Lefteris Moumtzis are the founders of both Fengaros Festival and Fengaros Music Village. When they started the festival, it was a single-day happening in Lofou, since when it has grown and changed.

“When we first began in 2011,” they say, “as a one-day event with three bands, Cyprus was going through a particularly rough period and we had to reschedule the festival in light of the Mari disaster. There was a lot of scattering around to find solutions to challenges and hurdles during this first edition so that we could still achieve our goal. Fengaros was something completely new and it was heart-warming for us to create a much-needed festival experience: a lineup of selected artists based solely on our own tastes, and not only ‘just because’. So, there was a lot of anticipation and excitement bottled up that was explosively let free at the first Fengaros Festival. It was very exhilarating, but also very risky and we ended up losing money. But we kept at it.”

A few years later, they launched the Fengaros Music Village in 2014 when the festival moved to Kato Drys. Hosting a week of workshops prior to the festival experience was in a way inspired by another music village in Greece that Kostas Makrygiannakis and Thimios Atzakas had been organising since 2006. There, Andreas and Lefteris were instructing seminars and fell in love with the concept.

“A beautiful traditional village, in the mountains, in nature, where unique workshops were offered, gathering people together from many parts of the world, playing music, learning, creating. Andreas was insisting that we should initiate something like that in Cyprus,” says Lefteris. “I didn’t believe that we could. It took a couple of years of thinking and preparing and by the winter of 2014 we were ready to launch the first edition.”

Now, Fengaros has become a staple of Cyprus’ summer agenda. Three days full of live music acts, from both local and international artists, camping between trees, partying at the local coffee shop and then having a sleepy breakfast there in the morning. All this makes up Fengaros and luckily, the festival and the village complement each other.

In 2018, they left the village setting briefly to relocate to Pervolia for one summer. Yet something was missing from the festival experience. That magical quality that takes over Kato Drys during Fengaros wasn’t there so the following year the festival returned to its usual location.

Supporting the local music scene and providing quality entertainment of international stature is at the core of Fengaros. “There have been a lot of firsts,” comment Andreas and Lefteris, “first open-air music festival in Cyprus with a line-up of artists performing their original music live, the first such music festival to take place in a traditional village, the first to bring Grammy-award winners to a music festival in Cyprus and many more. Local musicians in Cyprus need to be able to also perform at festivals and it is important to us to keep certain standards – high-quality sound, an audience to perform to, promo to boost their discoverability, and opportunities to perform alongside international artists as well as opportunities for selected international artists to perform in Cyprus to name just a few.

“In parallel,” they add, “it’s really important to remind people that this year, almost half of the line-up is made up of local acts that are performing their own new music – compare that to national radio quota laws, national radio playlist rules and the heavy live cover music culture on the island!”

Every detail matters for the Louvana Records guys when it comes to curating the festival. From the music that’s heard in between sets to sticking to the schedule and even getting involved with international programmes as a record label that may not be visible by the audience.

This July, they are introducing a new stage, the Carlsberg Beer Garden that’s been in the works for a while. This will be a more intimate yet still action-packed stage for music enthusiasts and the Fengaros team cannot wait to welcome festivalgoers back.

“To be able to return to Fengaros Festival after three years is insane,” they conclude. “We were sure that we would need to cease operations in 2020 but we are delighted that we can celebrate this anniversary. We’re very proud and honestly excited for this year’s line-up and not just from a music lover’s perspective. We are equally thrilled for the experience that audiences will have this year – entering the village, jumping from stage to stage, some secret locations that are in store, plus some extra special surprises!”

Fengaros Festival

10^th-anniversary edition of the music festival. July 28-30. Katy Drys village, Larnaca. www.fengaros.com