The stage planned for the upcoming carob festival in Ayios Georgios, Peyia, on Friday will be relocated following criticism over its initial placement in a protected area, after reports emerged of an unauthorised private party held there last weekend.

“We had a meeting with the competent authorities and decided that the platform will be removed, and the municipal event will take place in a new location,” environment department director Theodoulos Mesimeris told the Cyprus Mail.

He said the municipality had agreed to draft a new plan for the festival stage. Despite the tight timeframe, with just three days before the event, Mesimeris gave assurances that the request would be reviewed in time.

“We will view and examine the plan and issue our opinion”, he said during a site visit in the area.

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Akamas mayor Marinos Lambrou, shortly after the site visit, told the Cyprus Mail that the new plans would be sent by the environmental department by Wednesday morning.

“We moved the location around 70 to 100 metres away from the sea,” he said, adding that the new spot was more suitable for the 2,000–3,000 visitors expected.

While insisting that the original site was not problematic, Lambrou stressed that the festival had taken place in the area for 13 years “without issue.”

However, environmental organisation Terra Cypria had previously told the Cyprus Mail that even slight changes to event sites in the area could harm protected species.

Referring to the party criticised by the NGO, Lambrou said it involved only 200 visitors and posed no risk. “We moved the location [for the carob festival] behind some buildings and are now 100 per cent sure the event will not affect anything,” he said.

Asked what would happen if the new plans were rejected, Lambrou expressed confidence this would not happen, noting that the municipality, along with the environment, forestry and marine departments, had already discussed the matter extensively, including on Tuesday.

When asked why environmental experts, such as those from Terra Cypria, had not been invited to the meeting, Lambrou replied that it was strictly between government bodies and questioned the qualifications of the NGO’s members.

Terra Cypria, for its part, has strongly opposed the festival’s location. The group argued that the protected Ayios Georgios area is home to nesting sea turtles, monk seals and numerous bird species.

Following Monday’s reports of a party last weekend, it called for the “immediate dismantling of the platform” and a ban on all future events at the site, demanding that authorities fully enforce protection laws.

“Protected areas, as well as protected species and habitats, are not fields or objects of experiments for the subsequent recording of any impacts”, the NGO said in a statement.

It also claimed to have observed new construction in the area, including restaurant expansion, parking facilities and beach access, in zones overlapping with the Natura 2000 conservation network. The group stressed that the area borders the marine protected area and the specially protected area of Mediterranean importance of Lara–Toxeftra beach.

“[We call on the authorities] to ensure the imposition of strict and deterrent penalties for crimes against wildlife, as well as disobeying the instructions of the relevant authorities and non-compliance with applicable legislation”, Terra Cypria concluded.

Terra Cypria added that it had notified the environmental department upon learning about the private party two days ahead, with the department eventually disapproving of the event, however only after it had already taken place.

The organisation then voiced equal concerns about the location of the carob festival, scheduled for Friday, August 29 in the same location as the previous event, on the newly built premises of a restaurant, including a stage at the protected Toxeftra beach.

Mayor Lambrou had on Monday countered that the festival took place for only one evening, lasting only a few hours and that “in all these years turtle nests have never been affected.” He added that, in fact, nesting had increased significantly, describing the suggestion that lights from such events could affect turtle nesting at Toxeftra beach as “absurd”.

In view of the carob festival, Lambrou had initially announced that events in Peyia would continue as usual and that concerns of the environment or the fisheries department would be taken into account, “just as they were during Saturday’s event”.