On Tuesday 23rd December, the Girne Municipality had its Christmas Fair at Bariş Park. There were many people visiting the stalls selling bric-a-brac, jewellery, cakes and other foods.
The new Mayor of Girne was there, Nidal Gűngördű, and also Derman Atik, the Director of Culture. During the afternoon the “Friends” Line Dancers performed, all in fancy dress, and the audience loved their dancing to Christmas songs as well as other well-known music. They were pleased to take part as they do at many festivals in North Cyprus throughout the year.
Following the line dancing the Mayor gave a speech in Turkish, which was also translated in English, where he welcomed everyone and said he was there to celebrate Christmas, with the expatriate community, and the New Year, which is the Turkish Cypriot celebration, and he hoped that this type of event will bring all of the various nationalities together. The Municipality wants all nationalities living in the Girne area to feel they are part of the community and help it to develop into a wonderful place for all to enjoy.
Sergey Eletskikh, who does a lot of work within the Russian community in North Cyprus, said he would be performing later with Andrey Dolganov and some of his other Russian friends. Sergey loves to play his guitar and sing and he has performed at Russian get-togethers in the past singing Russian folk songs as well as other modern music.
There were children riding the little train which runs around the park and also enjoying the merry-go-round and the “bouncy” area.
There was music and festivity until 10pm and there will hopefully be another similar event next year to bring all of the communities together.
