Aphrodite Festival

The Company Pafos Aphrodite Festival Cyprus (P.A.F.C) was founded in 1998 with founding members the Municipality of Pafos, the Municipality of Geroskipou, the Municipality of Pegeia, the Pafos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Cyprus Hoteliers Association – Pafos Regional Committee.
The Company’s establishment was the result of the cooperation between these five organisations in the Pafos District, aiming at promoting Pafos as an international centre of high - profile cultural events, thus contributing to the international promotion and elevation of Cyprus in the cultural and tourist sectors.
 The Company is a non-profit organisation and its basic aims are the organisation – management of one internationally acclaimed annual cultural event as well as other cultural events in the District of Pafos.
The Founding sponsor is the Republic of Cyprus through the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism.

Up to now the Festival has hosted internationally renowned opera organizations, presenting popular masterpieces of lyric drama as: 1999: "Aida", Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre - 2000: "Carmen", the Estonian National Opera - 2001: "Nabucco", National Opera of Poland 2002: "Turandot", National Opera of Poland - 2003: "Tosca", Arena di Verona - 2004: "Rigoletto", the Polish National Opera, - 2005: "La Traviata" - 2006: "Un Ballo in Maschera" with academic Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg - in 2007: "Il Trovatore" with the State academic Theater Abai - 2008: "Madama Butterfly" with the Lyric Theatre in Trieste, Italy -2009: "Lakmè" with the National Opera Sofia-2010: "La Bohéme" with the Opera National Theatre and Slovak 2011: "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" with the National Theatre of Prague. The Pafos Aphrodite Festival 2012 with the project "Otello" was included in the program of events of the Cyprus EU Presidency in the production of the National Theatre Slovakia Opera.