Windcraft returns to the same village for a world music festival where wind instruments take the lead finds ELENI PHILIPPOU

The Windcraft Music Fest returns for the ninth year to Katydata in July for another summer music fiesta. With the sound of wind instruments taking over, audiences will experience two full days of outstanding concerts, workshops for children and adults and parallel activities. For the first time, the festival will include a six-day artists residency programme.

The line-up of Windcraft Music Fest 9 focuses on the collaboration between local and foreign artists, presenting both established groups and new projects involving Cypriot artists. Eight handpicked Cypriot and international bands featuring wind players, combining jazz with world music, often enriching it with electronic sounds and beats, will transform the orchard into a music stage for dreamy listening and frantic dancing, while the village streets will be filled with the sounds of wind and vocal ensembles.

This year’s cross-genre concert programme features winds in many different musical styles: from the atmospheric music of Gaba Project & Achilleas Tigas and Vassilis Philippou’s Colourful Emptiness, to People of the Wind & Yiannis Dionysiou and Stereoteismo’s unique approach to traditional Eastern music and from the exceptional jazz and world music fusion of La Pêche and Human Touch to the progressive sounds of Sonica & Toms Rudzinskis and Sustainable Resound, who mix acoustic with electronic elements. Moreover, the Windcraft Band returns with a rock attitude, presenting famous tunes with their brass sound, while Windcraft Voices explores the musical traditions of the Mediterranean through a cappella vocal arrangements.

In addition to the concerts, the festival will include a rich and varied parallel programme of musical and artistic workshops, interactive walks around the village and other activities. Windcraft Music Fest 9 will also host the artistic residency People of the Wind: Bridging the Sounds of East and West (July 18-23 2023), delegates from two other European festivals and selected Cypriot artists. The programme is supported by the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists – EFFEA and co-funded by the European Union.

By placing wind instruments in the spotlight and aiming at the promotion and further development of musical creation, Windcraft Music Fest 9 will once again give the occasion for coexistence in a musical community without restrictions and cultural boundaries and promises a two-day fiesta with eclectic sounds, interaction, partying and airy evenings with endless fun.

Windcraft Music Fest

Annual music festival with performances and workshops. July 22-23. Katydata village, Nicosia. www.windcraftmusicfest.com