Press Releases

It is a great pleasure for me to be here with you this evening and to inaugurate the Pafos Aphrodite Festival – a successful, world-known cultural event, reinstated after an absence of a few years. The Deputy Ministry of Culture strongly supports the festival, granting it a state sponsorship amounting to €170,000.

This state sponsorship is part of the broader strategic planning for Contemporary Culture of the Government and the Deputy Ministry of Culture, which aims to support the creative industries sector by helping in the upgrade of the infrastructure, by granting funds through competitive schemes and by promoting cultural education. Our main goal is to turn Cyprus into a centre of artistic creation and activity, to attract cultural tourism and, at the same time, to ensure access and participation of all citizens in culture and cultural events. Pafos Aphrodite Festival is a cultural event that fulfils all the abovementioned goals.

Here, in front of an outstanding monument of our cultural heritage, the Pafos Medieval Castle, which is used as part of the set, tonight we will have the opportunity to enjoy one of the most significant operas of the classical repertoire. A performance that is the result of the collaboration of the State Opera and the Tbilisi State Ballet artists, together with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra.

I would like to warmly congratulate the Municipality of Pafos and each and every one who contributed to the organisation of Pafos Aphrodite Festival 2024. Moreover, I would like to stress the importance of the involvement of local cultural institutions in such high-level cultural events.

In closing, let me say that I am confident that Pafos Aphrodite Festival will be a great success and that we will all enjoy a great performance!

(ΕΚ/IA/GS)