If you go to the website of the European Capital of Culture Pafos2017, you will get the gist of just how big and important the honour is for Paphos and for the Cyprus cultural scene as a whole. So, if you live in Paphos, put on your seatbelts on because it is going to be a very exciting cultural ride, and if you live in other cities, plan to go to the city where Aphrodite was born and take part in the cultural event of the year – if not the decade.
This Saturday, opening events will be taking place around the city. The first event is a walk around the city. Starting at Kennedy square at 10am, all those present will take a walk around the main venues that will host the events. In different parts of the city, information points and volunteers will provide information about the Pafos2017 programme. Next up, from 10.45am until 2.15pm there will be music in coffee shops. Five recitals from five soloists will be performed. The five musicians will perform classical and modern day pieces of work. The day will start at the Vintage Art Café, move on to the Ananas 8Bit Coffee, Deloubak Espreso Cuisine Co, then onto Beanhaus Coffee Roasters and finish off at the Let Them Eat Cake café.
At noon Kennedy Square will host a performance of the work of internationally renowned Danish composer Lars Moller, who composed a piece specifically for the opening event of the European Capital of Culture – Aarhus2017 (the second European Capital of Culture for 2017). The composer, who is inspired by today’s World Travellers, the Immigrants, comes to present his work also in Paphos with the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra, the Concert Clemens Choir and the Music Lyceum of Paphos Choir. The next event is an exhibition tour at 5pm between the Palia Ilektriki and the Shelley Residence. The exhibition is a group effort by renowned visual artists from Paphos and the Mediterranean who created works under the name Planites. The Planites refer to the wanderers, the world travellers, from Agapenor to Apostle Paul, Saint Neophytos, and, of course, Aphrodite. But the term also brings to mind the refugees of various times in the past and the people travelling across Europe, trying to escape war today. The exhibition will take on an alternative tour around the city’s urban fabric. Music is up next when choirs from all around Cyprus will invite everyone to enjoy the first day of the gigantic cultural event at 6pm at Kostis Palamas Square. This is right before the big opening ceremony set for 7pm at the town hall square.
The opening ceremony was inspired by the myth of Paphos, it has at its heart the founding myth of Pygmalion, the Artist and his creation, Galatea.
Young people, children and volunteers from all over Cyprus will join a professional cast from all over the island. Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot musicians and singers will sing in unison with a Danish choir and the Jazz Orchestra from Aarhus. As Pygmalion invokes the spirit of Aphrodite to breath life into the statue he has carved, light and fire will illuminate the sky above the town’s newly restored city centre.
Original compositions, as well as adaptations of music, choreographies and projections will be brought to life by actors, dancers and hundreds of children who will make sure the opening goes off with a bang.
Pafos2017 Opening EventsA number of events to mark the opening of the European of Capital of Culture, Pafos2017. January 28. Around Paphos. 10am-10pm. Tel: 26-932017
JANUARY 25TH, 2017 Cyprus Mail
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