It is very easy to simply say 37-year anniversary but for many of us, CyWineFest is older than we are! Once you start digging into the past and looking through all the newspaper archives of how the Cypriot Wine Festival was reported on, you get a real sense of how deep the roots of this event go within our community and why it is so important that it continues into the future. The event was completely different then and we acknowledge that in part it was reflective of where our Cypriot community was in the 1980s. Many in the community were only first or second generation Cypriots in the UK, where Greek was probably the primary language spoken at home, and many will even have been fairly new arrivals to the UK as refugees.
Whatever the case, you definitely get the impression that there was a real sense of a passionate, united community, and that is definitely something 37 years on that we still want at the heart of our event. The fact that CyWineFest is now in its 37th year is testament to the hard work and perseverance of many hard-working volunteers and organisations that have steadfast held the belief in organising an event for the community. CyWineFest is a very versatile event with countless things to do for visitors of all ages, as a meeting place for friends, a great family day out and in general a great reason for all to mingle and be part of Cypriot culture.
CyWineFest originally helped address a massive need. Outside of the obvious social benefits of a community event, it created a market place where the community could purchase Cypriot products at a time where they were not a readily and easily available in supermarkets or even before ‘bakalika’ really started setting up. Food culture and traditions have always been so important to Cypriots, and to not have access to buying things such as halloumi or olives, or olive oil must have made people feel so far from home and isolated in this ‘foreign’, cold country! Being able to import Cypriot produce and products gave people a connection to their roots and motherland, and that wouldn’t have happened without an event like CyWineFest. Today the event has grown beyond the market place concept and although it is still very much a Cypriot event, now encompasses not just the Cypriot community, but a much broader cross section of multicultural Britain and has become a more open and ethnically diverse event exporting Cypriot culture.
CyWineFest’s reach has also developed over the years. From visitors to the event predominately being from the heavily Cypriot populated areas of Wood Green and Palmers Green, the Cypriot community today has spread its wings much more widely, and we are pleased to say that we have visitors from as far and wide as Wales, Birmingham, Manchester and Mansfield, and attendance at CyWineFest is the highlight of a weekend trip to London. The spread of diaspora across the UK has meant that CyWineFest has an even more important place in keeping traditions and culture alive in the younger generations.
From its humble beginings based out of the Cypriot Commuity Centre in Wood Green, the event grew into its home for many years, Alexandra Palace. It is such an iconic London venue, that hosting the event there was a real statement of intent for the community, that we had become so well established, we could pull it off! The changing population and spread of the community ultimately was a major influence in our decision to move the event from Ally Pally to its new home of Lee Valley Athletics Centre. Although we’ve kept to North London, a significant proportion of families of Cypriot descent live and work in Enfield, and many families are also moving to neighbouring areas like Chestnut, Potters Bar, Waltham Cross and Chingford, still only a few miles from the Festival’s new home.
The flexibility offered by the venue in having indoor and outdoor facilities has meant that many ideas we have had over the years can now be put into practise and really help take the Festival to the next level. We as organisers, our volunteers, exhibitors and visitors to the event have been reinvigorated. We can now truly provide entertainment and things to do for all generations. Whilst parents can enjoy the free and unlimited wine (as long as there’s a designated driver taking them home of course!!), grandparents can meet with old friends and acquaintances over a nice Cypriot coffee and a pastry, the teenagers can enjoy performances from local community acts, traditional dancing and a headline act from either Cyprus or Greece, while the children can enjoy the bouncy castle, donkey rides and 5 a-side football tournaments. All this wrapped up in all the traditional Cypriot food you can think of! In a culture where we all have big, loud, bonkers extended families, where households may have multiple generations living under one roof, a Festival that caters for all is essential.
The Cypriot Wine Festival is a real testament to the success of the Cypriot community in London and the rest of the UK, in being able to openly celebrate our culture and integrate this into day to day life and society. We feel that CyWineFest adds to the rich multiculturalism of Enfield, and promotes tolerance, acceptance and the importance of understanding your family roots and heritage. We are actively doing more to raise awareness of the Festival outside of the Cypriot community and hope to see many new faces at this year’s event which will be held on 1st& 2nd June.
Our aim has always been to provide the community with something that you cannot get elsewhere; with an entrance fee of only £10 and £6, you can enjoy a top show with a well know artist from Greece. In the past we have had the likes of
Artists Hall of Fame
2019 – Peggy Zina
2018 – Konstantinos Argiros
2017 – Yiannis Ploutarchos
2016 – George Dalaras
2015 – Anna Vissi
2014 – Despina Vandi
2013 – Elena Paparizou
2012 – Keti Garbi
2011 – Sarbel & Glykeria
2010 – Stavros Konstantinou & Evi Kapatai
2009 – Stelios Dionisiou
2008 – Sarbel
2007 – Evi Kapatai & Nasia Trahonitou
2006 – Glykeria
2005 – Zig Zag & Mihalis Terlikkas
2004 – Konstantia & Kantadori
2003 – Pantelis Thalasinos
2002 – Michalis Violaris & Dimitris Fanis
2001 –
2000 – Evi Kapatai
CyWineFest saw the growing demand in having live music performances, growing from community bands and eventually grew to have some of the best Cypriot and Greek acts possible.
2019 celebrates the 37th anniversary of the Cypriot Wine Festival, and as the biggest and one of the most celebrated annual events for the London Cypriot community, we aim for it to be bigger and better than ever before!
Pricing
1982
Saturday 27 March 10:00 – 19:00
Sunday 28 March 11:00 – 15:00
1997
Saturday 5 July
Sunday 6 July
2000
Saturday 1 July 11:00 – 21:00
Sunday 2 July 11:00 – 19:30
2007
Saturday 23 June
Sunday 24 June
Adults £5
Pensioners £3
Under 12s free
2008
Saturday 28 June 11:00 – 23:00
Sunday 29 June 11:00 – 21:00
2009
Saturday 28 June 11:00 – 23:00
Sunday 29 June 11:00 – 21:00
2010
Saturday 26 June 11:00 – 23:00
Sunday 27 June 11:00 – 21:00
2011
Saturday 25 June 11:00 – 23:00
Sunday 26 June 11:00 – 21:00
Adults £6
Pensioners £4
12-18 £4
Under 12s free
2012
Saturday 30th June (11am – 11pm) Sunday 1st July (11am – 9pm) CHILDREN U-12 FREE PENSIONERS: 4.00 12-18s: 4.00 ADULTS: 6.00
2013
Saturday 29 June 11:00 – 23:00
Sunday 30 June 10:30 – 21:00
Adults £7
Pensioners £4
12-17 £5
Under 12s free
2014
Saturday 28 June 11:00 – 23:00
Sunday 29 June 10:30 – 21:00
Adults £7
Pensioners £5
Students £5
11-17 £5
Under 12s free
2015
Saturday 27 June 11:00 – 23:00
Sunday 28 June 10:30 – 21:00
Seated tickets £15 & £20
Adults £7
Pensioners £5
Students £5
11-17 £5
Under 11s free
2016
Saturday 25 June
Sunday 26 June
2018
Adults £10
Pensioners £6
Students £6
People with disabilities and their carers £6
11-17 £5
Under 12s free
The amazing thing is that the event has always been a two-day celebration!
It has always been part of CyWineFest’s ethics to provide a grand community event and which all can participate and the team over the years have done their absolute best to keep the event as affordable as possible.
Entry is from £6 for senior citizens and people with disabilities and their carers, a price which has stood for
Entry is £10 for adult tickets
CyWineFest has always kept children’s tickets free
We have also been very kind to exhibitors over the years and since the economic crisis of the late 2000s we dropped our prices to make it more affordable
Credit: CyWineFest team
Photo credit:
(1) Sidebar Montage – CyWineFest decade of Entertainment – Alexios Gennaris | Stelios Theodorou | Petros Pentayiotis | Andrew Prod Photography | Tino Antoniou
(2) George Dalaras – Stelios Theodorou
(3) Konstantinos Argiros – Alexios Gennaris
(4) Yiannis Ploutarchos live at CyWineFest 2017 – Andrew Prod Photography
(5) Anna Vissi live at CyWineFest 2015 – Petros Pentayiotis
