As every year, the enchanting courtyard of the Axiothea mansion will host a rich programme of artistic events that organically interact with one another, creating a cohesive cultural microcosm as the 29th University of Cyprus Cultural Festival gets underway this Fiday.

The programme includes dance, shadow theatre, silent cinema, ancient and contemporary theatre, traditional, contemporary and classical music, jazz, performances and workshops.

Audiences will have the opportunity to discover and enjoy both emerging and established artists with distinctive identities who move between tradition and experimentation, the local and the international.

Among featured artists are Nabu Pera, recently nominated for the German Record Critics’ Awards; internationally acclaimed Cretan musician Stelios Petrakis, whose latest album remained in the Top 10 of the World Music Charts Europe for two months; his distinguished collaborators Bijan Chemirani (Iran/France) and Efrén López (Spain); renowned composer, guitarist and performer Antonis Mitzelos; jazz vibraphonist Dimitris Angelakis and his trio from Greece; and Cyprus’ own Koulis Theodorou, who will present timeless songs featuring lyrics by Alkis Alkaeos.

The first part of the festival programme is further enriched by a new contemporary dance work by Panayiotis Tofi, a rare screening of Italian silent cinema accompanied live on piano by Andrea Goretti, and authentic Cypriot zurna and davul traditions performed by Kemal Devetzi and Aziz Kahraman.

The programme kicks off on Friday with Nabu Pera’s music performance Soundscapes of Nicosia. Then, the Chinese calligraphy and paper-cutting workshops will follow on June 7, showing children and adults two of the most enduring forms of Chinese folk art, recognised by Unesco as elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The workshops are free and in English, with booking required.

On June 10, the storytelling shadow theatre and live music performance The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde will invite audiences of all ages to an artistic, participatory evening. Two days later, a dramatised reading based on texts from The Gaza Monologues (2023) and Beckett’s Not I (1972) will be presented, translated into Greek and Turkish.

The silent film with live piano, Dante Alighieri’s L’Inferno, will continue the festival’s programme on June 14, highlighting the first Italian feature-length film. Italian pianist and composer Andrea Goretti will improvise throughout the entire 65-minute screening.

A music-theatre production will follow on June 16, based on the book by Miltos Paschalidis, paying tribute to one of the most significant lyricists of contemporary Greek music. This performance is titled Stubborn Head: The Alkis Alkaeos I Knew.

Next up is the contemporary dance production Tormentful Invisibility by Panayiotis Tofi, while on June 21, the young musicians of the University of Cyprus Music Academy will present the Dancing Through Sound concert.

A musical journey through songs that have left their mark on contemporary Greek music will follow on June 23 as Antonis Mitzelos presents Somewhere Beneath the Moonlight. More music will sound in old Nicosia with June 24’s concert, Lyric, connecting the sounds of Crete, Asia Minor, Southern Italy and Valencia.

June’s last event is a music and dance performance dedicated to the traditions of Cyprus, Pontus, Asia Minor and Eastern Rumelia. The House Where I Was Born Though Strangers Walk It Now will be presented on June 28.

In July, three more performances will take the floor – the Long Way Home by the Dimitris Angelakis Quartet on July 7, The Talented Mr Ripley play on July 10, 11 and 12 and the Cyprus Zurna and Davul performance by the Cyprus Music Archive, narrator/researcher Dr Nicoletta Demetriou and musicians Kemal Devetzi and Aziz Kahraman on July 14.

29th University of Cyprus Cultural Festival

Theatre, dance, music and cultural performances take the floor. June 5-July 14. Axiothea Mansion, Nicosia. 8.30pm. Free or €10. €50 for season ticket. Tel: 22894531-2. [email protected], https://www.facebook.com/ucyculturalcentre