Icarus Festival for Dialogue between Cultures ( Greek : Festival Politismikon Dialogon Ikarias) is a nonprofit international music festival that began in the summer of 2006 in Ikaria. The festival is an annual event organized by the Agios Kirykos, Evdilos, and Raches towns of Ikaria, a Greek island in the northern Aegean that bears the name of the mythical flyer Icarus. [1] The Icarus Festival is also a celebration of culture on Ikaria, with cultural books and albums publicized during the festival. [1] The Icarus Festival hosts well-known artists who mostly perform original work. [2] The name "Icarus Festival" is inspired by the myth of Icarus, who dared to fly anywhere even at the cost of his own life. [3] The Icarus Festival is a cultural travel destination in Greece that is listed in several travel magazines. [4] [5]
The festival's purpose is to host performances by artists or groups whose music is a product of multicultural participation or inspiration. The first festival took place in July 2006. The artistic directors were Vangelis Fampas and Klaudia Delmer. [3] [6]
The Icarus Festival held in 2008 was dedicated to the violin, a popular instrument on the island of Ikaria. [7] This marked the expansion of the Festival to include art forms such as dance and dance lessons, theater, photography, painting, cinema, and classical mythology. [8] [9] The Icarus Film Festival, supported by the Greek Film Center, the Mediterranean Film Institute and the cinema club of Agios Kirikos, led the way in bringing film into the Icarus Festival. [8]
In the summer of 2009, the International Music, Drama, and Film Festival was held in conjunction with the Icarus Festival. This festival featured Latin American culture and the Ancient Greek drama Socrates's Apology. [1]
Notable groups and artists who have participated in the Festival's functions include:
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, known professionally as Vangelis, was a Greek musician, composer, songwriter and producer of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.
Icaria, also spelled Ikaria, is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, 10 nautical miles (19 km) southwest of Samos. According to tradition, it derives its name from Icarus, the son of Daedalus in Greek mythology, who was believed to have fallen into the sea nearby.
Kavala is a city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala regional unit.
The North Aegean Region is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece, and the smallest of the thirteen by population. It comprises the islands of the north-eastern Aegean Sea, called the North Aegean islands, except for Thasos and Samothrace, which belong to the Greek region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, and Imbros and Tenedos, which belong to Turkey.
Patras is Greece's third-largest city and the regional capital of Western Greece, in the northern Peloponnese, 215 km (134 mi) west of Athens. The city is built at the foot of Mount Panachaikon, overlooking the Gulf of Patras.
Artemios "Demis" Ventouris-Roussos was a Greek singer, songwriter and musician. As a band member he is best remembered for his work in the progressive rock music act Aphrodite's Child, but as a vocal soloist, his repertoire included hit songs like "Goodbye, My Love, Goodbye", "From Souvenirs to Souvenirs" and "Forever and Ever".
Themes is a 1989 compilation album of works by Greek electronic composer and artist Vangelis. It featured some previously released tracks from Vangelis's other albums, as well as some pieces from movie soundtracks that had not previously been released.
Dionysos is a north suburb of Athens and a municipality in northeastern Attica, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Agios Stefanos.
Lesbos or Lesvos is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea, often called Mytilene (Μυτιλήνη) in Greece, after its capital. It has an area of 1,633 km2 (631 sq mi) with 321 kilometres of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait and in late Palaeolithic/Mesolithic times was joined to the Anatolian mainland before the end of the Last Glacial Period.
Fournoi Korseon, more commonly simply Fournoi, anciently known as Corsiae or Korsiai (Ancient Greek: Κορσίαι, Corseae or Korseai, and Corsia or Korsia, form a complex or archipelago of small Greek islands that lie between Ikaria, Samos and Patmos in Ikaria regional unit, North Aegean region. The two largest islands of the complex, the main isle of Fournoi 31 square kilometres and the isle of Thymaina 10 square kilometres, are inhabited, as is Agios Minas Island 2.3 square kilometres to the east. The municipality has an area of 45.247 km2. On the main isle Fournoi is the largest settlement and then Chrysomilia in the north the second largest. Fournoi proper is the main ferry harbour, with ferries also landing on Thymaina.
The Manaki brothers, Yanaki and Milton, were photography and cinema pioneers of the Balkan Peninsula and the Ottoman Empire. They were the first to bring a film camera and create a motion picture in the city of Manastir, an economic and cultural center of Ottoman Rumelia. Their first film, The Weavers, was a 60-second documentary of their grandmother spinning and weaving; this is regarded as the first motion picture shot in the Balkans. The Manaki brothers used a 35 mm Urban Bioscope camera that Yanaki imported from London in 1905. Yanaki and Milton filmed documentaries about various aspects of life in the city of Manastir.
Alexander is the original film score of the film Alexander (2004), scored by Greek electronic composer Vangelis. It received the Public Choice Award at the 2005 World Soundtrack Academy.
Ikaria Island National Airport Ikaros is an airport on Ikaria Island, Greece.
Yannis Smaragdis is a Greek film director.
The North Aegean islands are a number of disconnected islands in the north Aegean Sea, also known as the Northeastern Aegean islands, belonging mostly to Greece and a few of them to Turkey. The islands do not form a physical chain or group, but are frequently grouped together for tourist or administrative purposes. To the south are the Dodecanese islands; and to the west are the Cyclades and Sporades islands.
El Greco is a soundtrack album featuring the music score for the 2007 film El Greco, by Greek electronic composer Vangelis, released in Greece and Cyprus by Universal Music Greece. The film, directed by Yannis Smaragdis, follows the life of Greek painter, Doménicos Theotokópoulos, as he travels to Italy and Spain where he becomes known as El Greco. Vangelis previously worked with Yannis Smaragdis on his 1996 movie about the Greek poet Kavafis. It won the award for best music score at the 48th Greek State Film Awards in 2007.
Chrisavgi (Kristi) Stassinopoulou is a Greek singer, lyricist, and fiction writer. A native Athenian, she is an internationally known artist of the world music circuit. She is accompanied by composer, arranger, co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Stathis Kalyviotis. Their music combines traditional Greek rhythms and sounds, Byzantine vocal lines, rebetiko music, psychedelic rock, ambience and electronica.
Vangelis Petsalis is a classical composer and pianist from Greece. He was born in Corfu and studied at the Conservatoire of the Philharmonic Society of Corfu. He studied orchestration and composition in Athens. His work includes compositions for orchestra, piano, choir and the theatre.
Agios Minas is a Greek island in Fournoi Korseon cluster. It is located east of Fournoi. Agios Minas is the third largest island of the cluster with an area of 2.5 km2. On the island, only few shepherds live occasionally. The population of the island is 3 inhabitants according to 2011 census. Administratively, Agios Minas belongs to Ikaria and Fournoi Korseon municipality.