The 22nd Olive Festival had an enthusiastic closing

The 22nd Olive Festival, which was held within the scope of ‘Girne Arkın Group Fest 23’ and took place between 4-8 October, had an enthusiastic closing. Colourful moments were experienced within the scope of the festival held in Zeytinlik (Templos) Village, which lasted five days and hosted many beautiful events. While local products, handicrafts and many other products were on the stands, various activities were held on the festival stage. The closing event of ‘Girne Arkın Group Fest 23’, which continues for 40 days, will be the Edip Akbayram concert, which took place at Girne Amphitheater on October 10th.

The Olive Festival, which presented its last events to the participants started with Children and Youth Activities. The event included a ceramic event with art educator Bedia Kale and a chess festival in cooperation with the Chess Education Center.

Within the scope of the ‘Olives and Olive Oil Food Competition’, which added a completely different flavour to the festival, the candidates showed themselves in four different categories. Within the scope of the competition, Hatice Aydın with her pickled beans sautéed in olive oil in the most successful olive oil appetizer category, Fatma Kıran with her olive oil flower and leaf stuffing in the most successful olive oil dish category, Jan Farmery with her olive oil orange hazelnut cake in the most successful olive oil/olive oil (baked goods) category, and In the successful young cook (under 20) category, Emine Kıran won with her olive oil kebab.

What quickly warmed up the participants to the night was Dance Spot’s show. During the night, Food Engineer Naile Soyel’s presentation ‘The Benefits of Olives and Olive Oil for Our Health’ attracted great attention. In addition, awards were given to their owners within the framework of the International Olive Festival and Olive Humor Festival, organized in cooperation with Kyrenia Municipality and the Turkish Cypriot Cartoonists Association. This year, within the scope of the ‘2023 Golden Olive Humor Service Competition’, 134 participants from 39 countries participated in the competition with the themes of ‘Olive’ and ‘Free’ with a total of 380 works, and 29 people were awarded in 5 branches within the scope of the competition.

The Filipino Community in North Cyprus was highly appreciated for its colorful dance shows and costumes. On the closing day, the 22nd International Kyrenia Olive Festival Tennis Tournament Award Ceremony, which lasted for 4 days, also took place. As part of the award ceremony, awards were presented to 14 people in 6 different categories. Çankaya Municipality Hoy-Tur Folk Dance Group, which performs with different dance shows and different costumes every evening, performed its latest stage shows great to applause.

Sector 53 Group, formed by Cypriot artists, gave the audience enjoyable moments with their stage shows and songs. After the group, Kyrenia Tango Argantino’s tango dance show took place. The festival was closed with the magnificent stage performance of local artist Nafiz Dölek and her group. The 22nd Olive Festival ended after five full days of excellent events and enthusiastic participants.

Source (Turkish): Girne Municipality