Icarus Festival for Dialogue between Cultures is an international music festival that began in the summer of 2006 in Ikaria.
The festival is an annual event organized by all 3 municipalities of Ikaria, a Greek island in the northern Aegean that bears the name of the mythical flyer Icarus.
Its 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.
The groups and artists that have so far participated or will be participating in the Festival's functions, include: Etnika (Malta), L' Ham de Foc (Spain), Motion Trio (Poland), Mimis Plessas - Klaudia Delmer (Greece - Poland), Encardia (Greece - Italy), Tangarto - Tanguero (Greece - Argentina), Maria Bermudez - Chicana Gypsy (USA - Spain), Vassilis Lekkas - Giannis Spathas (Greece), George Psihogios (Greece), Theros - Lamia Bedhioui (Greece - Tunisia), Christos Tsiamoulis - Halil Karaduman (Greece - Turkey), Fabien Ballejos - Gina Nikolitsa - Novitango Quintet (Argentina - Greece), DROM (Romani - Greece), Ship of Fools (Holland - Europe), Djamel Benyelles - Djam & Fam (Oran, Algeria - France), Marta Sebestyen - Kostis Avyssinos (Hungary - Crete), Voces Del Sur (Chile - Scotland), Sotiria Leonardou - Vangelis Fampas - Panos Fourtounas (Greece), Ypogeia Revmata (Greece), Makis Seviloglou - Kaiti Koullia (Greece - Balkans), En mia Nykti - Fide KÖksal - Cihan Turkoglu - Solis Barki (Turkey - Greece), Margarida Guerreiro (Portugal), Luna Piena Trio (Italy - Sicily), Quartaumentata (Calabria, Italy), Leonardo Gomez - Amor Latino - Janet Kapuya (Chile - Greece - Uruguay), Monika (Greece), Cabaret Balkan (Greece - Balkans) etc.
The Festival has, since 2008, expanded to other forms of art, such as dance, theater, photography & painting exhibitions, dance lessons and cinema. In particular the Icarus Film Festival, supported by the Greek Film Center, the Mediterranean Film Institute and the cinema club of Agios Kirikos has been inviting a great number of film directors to Ikaria for an in person presentation of their works.
A brief history of Ikaria
In Mythology, the island has been named Ikaria by Hercules after the fall of Icarus into the Icarian Sea, close to the shores of the island (the rock where Icarus fell, can be seen today near Agios Kirikos).It is also believed that Dionysus was born in Ikaria, in the cavern of Ieron, an amphitheatrical beach close to the village of Faros. Ikaria was also the mythological place of retreat for the goddess Artemis (A temple of Artemis exists in Nas). Ikaria of today is still a land where people do things “in their way”. Hospitality, friendliness and the wisdom of taking things slow are characteristics of the Icarians of today.
Famous quotes containing the words festival, dialogue and/or cultures:
“Sabbath. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“When we understand that man is the only animal who must create meaning, who must open a wedge into neutral nature, we already understand the essence of love. Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being.”
—Ernest Becker (1924–1974)
“A two-week-old infant cries an average of one and a half hours every day. This increases to approximately three hours per day when the child is about six weeks old. By the time children are twelve weeks old, their daily crying has decreased dramatically and averages less than one hour. This same basic pattern of crying is present among children from a wide range of cultures throughout the world. It appears to be wired into the nervous system of our species.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)