The Cypriot Wine Festival & Business Expo team just keep on smashing it and producing an amazing entertainment programme year after year! That’s certainly the message we’ve been getting from lots of very happy visitors. It’s quite a hard task to get an entertainment programme flowing from early afternoon through to the close of the event, and offer something to impress all our visitors, but we try to get a nice festival atmosphere going early on and get the crowds warmed up for our headline act which always brings the bouzoukia scene from Athens to Enfield!
The music was pumping as soon as the doors opened and the party didn’t stop until the doors closed! Kicking us off during the day with a great playlist of some of our best loved old skool Greek and Cypriot songs, as well as a few more modern, were LGR’s DJ Makis as well as our regular CyWineFest resident DJ Chris Theocharous. We had a much more varied day time entertainment programme this year which had something for everyone….
We had Belle of the Ballroom, Princess Christina Katsi singing a medley of all our favourite Disney songs for the little ones to enjoy and sing along to, and dressed as a typical Disney princess, she certainly looked the part and children loved getting their picture taken with her throughout the day! This was followed by a CyWineFest first; Themis Loizou took to the stage and gave a cocktail making demonstration of a couple of the cocktails that were being served at the CyWineFest Cocktail Bar. These cocktails were created exclusively for CyWineFest making the most of Cyprus’ famous drinks, including zivania, commandaria, brandy and of course wine. A lucky few in the audience even got the chance to have a taster of the finished product. And for those of us in the CyWineFest team that were Themis’ on stage helpers, I can confirm that every cocktail we tried was delicious!
We also had a unique performance this year from Marianna Neofitou who ran an OPA-cize demonstration with some of her regulars, giving visitors the chance to get to see what it is all about and also signing up to some classes. Think Zumba to Greek music – what a great way to exercise!
As the day continued, our programme turned towards more of a show with a number of our community singers showcasing their own songs, or giving fantastic renditions of some classics. After making an incredible CyWineFest debut sharing a stage with Yiannis Ploutarchos last year, Elizabeth Chapman returned to top that by performing her latest single Irthes Esi, George Nicolaou sang Ano Kato, Tony Panayi, a CyWineFest regular did not disappoint with his performance, and who could forget Kyriacos Georgiou, a local boy who is a rising star in Greece and beyond who last performed at CyWineFest in 2015 and sang his hits Sto Poto Mou Rixse Stahti, the highly popular Pos Tin Ides – Kazhi Mi and his latest single Sta Pio Trela Mou Oneira. And all this was interspersed with bouzouki duo Makarios Jordanou and Andy Ioannou of the Niavent band, as well as the Karotseris Dance Group who made a massive impact last year with father and son dancing some incredible traditional dances, and were brought back by popular demand from Cyprus, with more of the dance troupe who made an even bigger impact. Not only did Marios Avraam once again dance with far too many glasses and vases on his head, but their talents were not even just limited to the stage! When they weren’t performing, they were outside making traditional palouze and giving visitors demonstrations of how to make soutzouko!!
Our entertainment programme is undoubtedly one of the main attractions and as day turned to evening, we and our visitors could not wait for our headline act to hit the stage. We were ecstatic that Konstantinos Argiros, who is currently top of the hot list in Greece, chose CyWineFest for his first ever UK live performance, and that he was able to close the event on both days. It is a testament to what CyWineFest has become that we can attract the A-list singers from Greece and Cyprus, and they know how much it means to our community to have them there. Konstantinos did not disappoint! He gave us two hours of hit song after hit song including …Ximeromata, Athina-Thessaloniki, Psemata, To Simberasma, Ta Kataferes. Osa Niotho, Pare Me Agkalia, Paidi Genneo, Pote Xana, and many, many more! Within about 10 minutes, the crowd abandoned their seats to dance in front of the stage and get as close to him as possible. His voice was incredible. The atmosphere was incredible. The crowd’s reaction was incredible. And although he sang a few of the classic laika songs, his naturally upbeat style of pop music left everyone in such a festival and party spirit. The 36th CyWineFest certainly won’t be forgotten in a hurry!
Now we have to figure out who we can bring next year to top it – we’ll have to put our thinking caps on!!!
Chriso Ioannou
Photos: Alexios Gennaris / Peter Pentayiotis
