With just a few days left to go, the island is getting ready to celebrate the 2023 carnival with a long week of events. Kickstarting the festivities is a series of Tsiknopempti events on February 16 to officially inaugurate the carnival week.

In Larnaca, the Larnaca Municipality will celebrate Tsiknopempti with a public event at 12pm at the Square by N Dimitriou street. Music, free food with plenty of smokey meat bites, as the day calls for, and free wine and zivania will flow throughout the event. Famagusta too will host a Stinky Thursday event in the afternoon at Ayios Georgios Square. Festivities will begin at 6pm with this year’s carnival King and Queen arriving to launch the fiesta. Food and drink will go around while a concert by Laikons band entertains party-goers.

Nicosia and Paphos save their official carnival celebrations for the days that will follow while Limassol has by far the biggest Tsiknopempti celebrations being the capital city of the carnival. There, official and unofficial Tsiknopempti parties begin at noon all over the city. The old town fills with dressed-up crowds packing old town streets and bars, drinking, eating and dancing. Limassol Municipality’s official events which launch its biggest annual event will start from Grigoris Afxentiou Square at 6pm on February 16.

An impressive flag-waving show by Castiglion Fiorentino Historical Group will open the programme with impressive colourful flags and costumes. Popular Limassol-based Batukinio Percussion Band, led by drummer Rodos Panagiotou, will then perform an explosive percussion live music show bringing samba sounds and Afro-Brazilian music to the heart of Limassol.

Then Limassol Carnival’s Flame King and the 2023 Limassol Carnival King will arrive to lead a parade beating to the sounds of Batukinio through the old town to will conclude back at Grigoris Afxentiou Square. Once the parade ends, a Brazilian Band consisting of eight musicians and 12 percussionists will take the stage for a live show as a party bursts in Limassol’s streets offering the first taste of the 2023 carnival.