The last weekend of August, a final hoorah before the return to routine, has a couple of exciting events up its sleeve. One of them, nestled in the eucalyptus trees and sea breeze of Kato Pyrgos is the theatre and performing arts festival Anti-Skino that is coming up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. With a dozen performances on its agenda – mostly in Greek and one in English – the festival is ready for its 7th edition, its longest version to date.

“The programme of this year’s Anti-Skino Festival,” say organisers, “invites everyone to become one with nature and the majestic tranquillity of Kato Pyrgos Tyllirias, enjoying three days full of theatre, music, art, artistic discussions and pleasant acquaintances with artists and people of the cultural entertainment industry.”

The festival will open on Thursday with an 8pm workshop for teenagers by Maria Kassino followed by a devised theatre performance Young Artists on Stage with an actress and a musician. After that, the first night will conclude with a musical interlude as the festival introduces its team and volunteers along with the youth of Kato Pyrgos through a flashback to Greek music with musicians Katerina Paraschou and Andreas Moses.

Day two’s events will begin early, at 11am, with an activity where festival-goers can get to know the festival’s artists. From 1pm and all throughout the afternoon, a DJ playlist will accompany visitors as they lounge at the seaside community park where the festival is hosted, waiting for the evening performances to begin.

An art and digital performance with Stavros Petrou will kickstart day 2’s events on stage at 6pm and then at 6.30pm, the Young Artists on Stage will present the Sanctus performance before Raphaela Kavazi and George Papaconstantinou present A-Psychi.

At 8pm, a group of local actors will present a Greek adaptation of Andrew Westerside’s play The Audit (or Iceland, a Modern Myth) exploring the value of money, the cost of greed and a society that rebels against an economic crash. More theatre will continue with the play My Cat’s Name Is Sotiris before a musical narration takes place at 11pm by Savvas Chrysostomou, Christodoulos Christodoulou and George Papakonstantinou. To wrap up day two, the festival’s only performance in English will take place at midnight welcoming Melissa Zanga to present her poetry piece called Aliveness.

Saturday will begin with a morning qi gong and tai chi practice embodied with poetry in flow motion, facilitated by Alexis Karkotis at 9am. Two hours later, an interactive theatre workshop for children aged 6 to 12 will take place. In the afternoon, Christina Georgiou will present the results of the Performance Art Masterclass as a performance before the Young Artists on Stage showcase the Bits and Pieces performance. Up next will be a dance theatre performance titled Excavated Anatomies with a cello solo. More music-poetry will follow as the performance The Fate of the Walls is presented on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the opening of the checkpoints in Cyprus.

At 9.30pm Achilleas Grammatikopoulos will direct the play Nostalgia with two actors on stage. Before the night ends, a stand-up comedy set with Hampi will take place at 10.30pm before the closing party with DJs Mpakkalis and Patsas gets festivalgoers up and dancing. That will wrap up the 2023 edition of the festival and Sunday will be dedicated to taking in the experience before leaving for the city. To accommodate all those coming from far away, the festival has organised a bus service leaving from Solomou Square in Nicosia on Thursday and Friday with a return either on Sunday or Monday morning. The complete bus schedule can be found on the festival’s Facebook page @antiskino.

Anti-Skino Festival

Outdoor theatre and performing arts festival. August 24-26. Kato Pyrgos Tyllirias, Paphos. General admission for 3 days €20. www.anti-skino.eu