Famagusta Walled City

Festival is held every year during the month of  April. First Festival took place in 2009 and the third one in 2011. The Festival takes place in April mainly because the weather conditions during  this month is rather mild, and also 23rd April which is a national  holiday dedicated to children creates a festival atmosphere thus giving the children an enjoyable period before the school holidays start. Both festivals atracted around 5000 people each time.Parents  an their children  have enjoyed the full day activities.Many people stayed at the Festival  longer after the closing time.

During the Festival 14 different activities for children took place  each time.Some of these activities were very usefull  for the parent and other adult visitors as well.

Some of The Activities

Historical Tours:
Two different types (short and long) guided historical tours took place under the guidiance of professional guides and children dressed with costumes of historical characters. Children in costumes told a short story,in Turkish an English, about the characters they represented . Most of the children and many adults heard about the history of the Walled City.

Sale of traditional Cyprus food, drinks,desserts and handcrafts:
Stands have been supplied  to farmers,small producers and housewives, free of charge, enabling them to sell their original cyprus products. This activity took place in the ancient Venetian Palace where people bought many types of original Cyprus food which they can not make at home. Some of the food was made and cooked on the spot which was a great attraction for the  young generation who has never seen how these food is prepared and cooked.

Bicommunal Folk Dance and other shows:
A bicommunal folk dance group, consisting of Turkish and Greek Cypriot young boys and girls,performed  very nice Cyprus Folk dances for half an hour. Besides this show, some other shows such as: Drums show, live music, Latin American, Indian and Turkish dance shows were performed by elementary school children, members of Famagusta Cultural Association and Eastern Mediterranean University which added lots of fun and excitement to the day.

Games:
Some games were organised for  the children which lasted though out the  day.Some of these were, Junior Singing Contest (all attendats received presents), Treasure Hunt Game, Sculpture Game, Jumping Castle for Children. Chess Playing and Surprise Games and Competitions. These games and competition were organised in order to have the children develop their self confidence and skills while having fun . All children declared winners and given some presents.

Educational Activities:
Some stands were allocated to Book and Stationary Shops. We have allocated space and stands to such shops free of charge inexchange of selling books and stationary at low prices. These shops have organised Hand Printing, Finger and Face Painting activities . Caricature Drawing Technics was another  activity which made the artists to bring to surface some of the hidden abilities of some children.

The most important educational activities were Memories of  Famagusta Photogtaps Exibition, Slide Show of Historical Famagusta Photographs, Documentary Screening ‘’ Stones of Famagusta: The Story of a Forgotten City’’,  and Historical Cypriot Paintings:Travelling Artists of Cyprus, 1700-1960. These shows and exibitions  were new for most of the visitors and gave very high standart knowledge about the Yesderday’s and Today’s Famagusta.

All activities aimed to train with with different knowledges that they can learn in the schools while having  fun with their families and friends. Many festivals are organised through out the year and children activities take place in very minor scale. We have created a Festival which is fully dedicated to children. Both Festivals were very succesfully started, continued and ended.  We gained a great experience during the Festivals and hope to do better and better  in coming years.