OPENING CEREMONY

SATURDAY AUGUST 6^TH, 21.00, IERAPETRA SEASIDE SQUARE                                                                                            

LIVE STREAMING www.festivalierapetra.gr.

The Artistic Director, Eleni Vlassi, draws the curtain and proclaims live on stage the opening of the Festivals, together with the 10 years old soloist-miracle, Stelios Kerasidis, in a unique performance of the Oscar-winner emblematic work of Vangelis "Chariots of Fire". Official guests, the Artistic Director of the Drama International Short Film Festival Yiannis Sakaridis and the distinguished photojournalist and war correspondent Dimitris Messinis.

Tribute to the "100 Years from the Minor Asia Catastrophe" and to the Greek composer Vangelis Papathanassiou, with interactive dance and music performances.

Stelios Kerasidis - The 10 years old soloist-miracle, the new Mozart, a musical genius, with international performances at Herodium Theater, Carnegie Hall New York, Royal Albert Hall London. His greatest works include the "Isolation Waltz", the "Renaissance Waltz" and the recent "Anti-War Etude"..

Dramaturgical interactive performance and projected video, in the epic composition "Mythodea" by Vangelis, made in 2001 for the NASA Mission to Mars and the spaceship Mars Odyssey. Cover-Performance: Alexandros Lyra in lyre. On stage, the Volunteers Dance Group of the Festivals.

Musical bridge of West to East, with the traditional Minor-Asian song "Menexedes kai Zoumboulia". Singing performance: Eleanna Karandeinou, Musical Performance: Alexandros Lyra in lyre and Yiorgos Tsagkarakis in guitar. 

Music and dance performance by the Dimitris Kaparakis Dance Group, on the Zeibekiko dance and the Hassapiko Dance which is connected to the group movement of the soldiers of Alexander the Great.

Students and teachers of the Lasithi Music High School present Minor-Asian songs and dances with spoons.

The Opening Ceremony will close with the screening of the multi-award winner film "Land of the Sorrowful Virgin Mary" by Eleni Vlassi, on the uprooting of Hellenism of Minor Asia. (Duration 60')

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The Opening Ceremony is presented by the Director of the Lasithi Music High School, Marianna Haita and the actor / director / scriptwriter Christos Solomos.