Everything ready for the Corfu Food & Wine Festival
Corfu Food & Wine Festival
23 Sep 2022
/ 18:53
CORFU. 24-30 September – The programme of the festival in Corfu, as well as the events in Armenia, Serbia, Italy and Spain.
Corfu has always offered shelter, help and solidarity to people in need. In difficult times it stood by the weak, the hunted, the wanderers.
Odysseus was the first one to receive the Corfiots' hospitality. According to Homer's Odyssey, the naked Odysseus, lost, disoriented and not knowing how he was to get home, was shipwrecked on Corfu, the island of the Phaeacians. He told anyone that asked that his name was Nobody. The islanders, not caring about his external appearance, offered him hospitality as if he were a king. They gave him food and wine, played music and danced, organised games - just for his pleasure. Through this hospitality Odysseus discovered his true self - the king that was hidden within him - and so found his destination. His homeland. Ithaca.
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought to Corfu many families who in the following centuries had a prominent role not only in the course of history of Greece but also in the development of the new world.
In 1922 a new wave of refugees from Asia Minor and Armenia found shelter in Corfu.
The Epirotes and Cretans fled to the Ionian Islands and Corfu during the period of Ottoman rule, as well as many Peloponnesians and Cypriots.
Corfu has a long-standing relationship with Armenians:
Persecuted Christians by the Turkish, fled Armenia in the 16th century, found shelter and refuge in Corfu and built the villages Armenades and Rachtades. More arrived in 1922.
In 1937, the Armenian poet Konstantin Zarian, inspired by Corfiot wine and the Corfu Town, wrote poems about "Corfu, the centre of the world".
Noah, the biblical Patriarch planted a vineyard on Mount Ararat after the flood, in a place that is not too far off from these archaeological digs. Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest known production of wine took place in Armenia around 6,000 years ago.
Italy has found support and solidarity in Corfu in a number of cases:
In 1849 the poets Giuseppe Regaldi and Niccolo Tomasseo (chased for their ideas) found refuge in Corfu, where their friend and national poet of Greece Dionysios Solomos had already moved.
In April 1906, deadly earthquakes following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius struck Naples. The people of Corfu raised money (from Philharmonic concerts), which they sent to the Naples Municipality. The Neapolitans, in recognition of the Corfiots' help and solidarity, sent paving slabs from the lava of Pompeii. These slabs still adorn the alleys of the old town.
Serbia found refuge in Corfu in 1915 when the Serbs, driven out of their country by the Austrians, were looking for a place to protect themselves.
Spain found in Corfu a literary refuge:
Miguel Cervantes, the greatest Spanish writer, was hospitalised in 1571 for six months in a rehabilitation unit in Corfu, after being seriously injured in the Battle of Nafpaktos.
In Spain, when the dictator Franco in 1963 condemned the award of the Prix Formentor International Literary Prize as a spiritual controversy against his regime and forbade its recurrence on Spanish land, intellectuals sought refuge in Corfu. The place that hosted the shipwrecked Odysseus and was called the "island of salvation" by the Serbs, welcomed the European writers expelled by a tyrannical regime, showing its solidarity and support for the free European spirit.
During these dark times that our world is going through once again, we honor hospitality and solidarity by raising a glass of wine together with Yerevan, Constantinople, Naples, Belgrade, Madrid, Ioannina and Chania, drinking to the health and solidarity of the humanity.
Festival Programme
Saturday 24 September
Opening Ceremony
People's Garden
18:00-21:00
- Welcome addresses.
- Presentation of the Culinary Traveller of the Year Award by the Corfu Chefs' Club.
- Music and tastes from the honoured areas (Armenia, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Crete, Epirus and Asia Minor).
- Exhibition of wines and local products from the Ionian Islands and the participating areas.
Sunday 25 September
Event for children - "Learning the tastes of my town by playing"
Sea Scout Base, Potamos
11:00-13:00
The Ionian Islands Regional Agrifood Partnership with the 5th Potamos Sea Scout Group are organising at the Sea Scout Base in Potamos an activity for children. Special educational material, quizzes and games related to healthy Ionian diet, traditional products of the Ionian Islands and the protection of the environment. Healthy snacks will be offered to the children, as well as gifts with educational material.
Workshop on wine's culture
People's Garden
11:00-13:00
- Discussion on wine traditions in Corfu, Serbia, Italy, Italy, Spain, Crete and Armenia.
- Wine as a reason for a journey (wine tourism).
- Tasting of wines from the honoured areas.
Monday 26 September
Ionian Islands inspire literature
People's Garden
18:00-19:00
- The Greek-American author Yvette Manessis Corporon will read excerpts from her books.
Yvette Manessis Corporon is an Emmy Award–winning author and producer. She is the author of the books "When the Cypress Whispers" (Harper, 2014), "Something Beautiful Happened" (Howard, 2017) and "Where The Wandering Ends" (2022, Harper Muse). To date, Yvette's books have been translated into 16 languages.
Crete in Corfu
People's Garden
19:00-21:00
- Open event with flavours and music from Crete. Guest chef Nektaria Kokkinaki.
Wednesday 28 September
Ionian Islands inspire literature
Erikoussa
11:00-15:00
- The Greek-American author Yvette Manessis Corporon will read excerpts from her books.
Thursday 29 September
Serbia in Corfu
People's Garden
19:00-22:00
- Musical event dedicated to the Serbs who had refuge in Corfu.
- Premiere of the movie: "King Petar the First".
King Petar the First (2018)
125m | Drama, History
Director: Petar Ristovski
Starring: Lazar Ristovski, Milan Kolak, Radovan Vujovic, Danica Ristovski
King Petar The First, as a young man is banished from Serbia. Many years later, he returns to his country to liberate its people and secure parliamentary democracy and starts the reconstruction of Serbia.
Festival’s Parallel World
The organisation and implementation of a festival nowadays must be designed so that it can be flexible (without being altered) easily and functionally.
The pandemic has shown us a new world, more or less the world of 5G, with new social and professional behaviours, with teleconferences, remote users, virtual and augmented reality.
The challenges and opportunities created by crises, such as the current war and energy deadlock, are a train we should have already boarded.
Based on this reasoning, Corfu Food & Wine Festival tried in 2021 an innovative hybrid method. We implemented actions in Corfu with livestreaming and actions in other cities of the world, a world that could not travel and participate due to Covid.
This experience gave us strength to continue and improve this practice. See what our upcoming events are and choose the ones you would like to attend.
In cooperation with the respective Embassies of the participating countries, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Tourism, GNTO and ERT, we are organising events in cities from which the persecuted fled to Corfu.
Wine & Poetry
Charents Museum of Literature and Arts
Yerevan, Armenia.
An event dedicated to the Armenian poet Constant-Ivan Zarian, who connects Armenia with Corfu, Spain and the whole intellectual world of the early 20th century.
Literature & Freedom
January 2023
Event in Madrid
- Poetry and wine event in collaboration with the GNTO office in Spain and an invitation to Fundación Formentor to hold the Prix Formentor literary competition in Corfu in 2023 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of hosting the 3rd Prix Formentor.
- Promotion of wine relations between Spain and Greece: the case of Malvasia Wine.
- Promotion of local products from both countries.
A common homeland
February 2023
Belgrade
Musical event with Beethoven's 9th Symphony in a bombed-out building.
Together
March 2023
Open Market or Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella
Naples
Greek national composer Nikolaos Mantzaros, along with the famous composer Niccolò Zingarelli, developed in Naples the movement that later became established as the Heptanese school in music. Eighty years later, the musicians of Corfu raised money to support and stand by the earthquake victims of Naples. Just like our national poet Dionysios Solomos stood by the Italian fugitive poets Regaldi and Tomaseo when he offered them shelter in Corfu. We are celebrating this 'togetherness' in Naples with a musical event, which highlights the relationship between the two areas.
Odysseus was the first one to receive the Corfiots' hospitality. According to Homer's Odyssey, the naked Odysseus, lost, disoriented and not knowing how he was to get home, was shipwrecked on Corfu, the island of the Phaeacians. He told anyone that asked that his name was Nobody. The islanders, not caring about his external appearance, offered him hospitality as if he were a king. They gave him food and wine, played music and danced, organised games - just for his pleasure. Through this hospitality Odysseus discovered his true self - the king that was hidden within him - and so found his destination. His homeland. Ithaca.
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought to Corfu many families who in the following centuries had a prominent role not only in the course of history of Greece but also in the development of the new world.
In 1922 a new wave of refugees from Asia Minor and Armenia found shelter in Corfu.
The Epirotes and Cretans fled to the Ionian Islands and Corfu during the period of Ottoman rule, as well as many Peloponnesians and Cypriots.
Corfu has a long-standing relationship with Armenians:
Persecuted Christians by the Turkish, fled Armenia in the 16th century, found shelter and refuge in Corfu and built the villages Armenades and Rachtades. More arrived in 1922.
In 1937, the Armenian poet Konstantin Zarian, inspired by Corfiot wine and the Corfu Town, wrote poems about "Corfu, the centre of the world".
Noah, the biblical Patriarch planted a vineyard on Mount Ararat after the flood, in a place that is not too far off from these archaeological digs. Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest known production of wine took place in Armenia around 6,000 years ago.
Italy has found support and solidarity in Corfu in a number of cases:
In 1849 the poets Giuseppe Regaldi and Niccolo Tomasseo (chased for their ideas) found refuge in Corfu, where their friend and national poet of Greece Dionysios Solomos had already moved.
In April 1906, deadly earthquakes following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius struck Naples. The people of Corfu raised money (from Philharmonic concerts), which they sent to the Naples Municipality. The Neapolitans, in recognition of the Corfiots' help and solidarity, sent paving slabs from the lava of Pompeii. These slabs still adorn the alleys of the old town.
Serbia found refuge in Corfu in 1915 when the Serbs, driven out of their country by the Austrians, were looking for a place to protect themselves.
Spain found in Corfu a literary refuge:
Miguel Cervantes, the greatest Spanish writer, was hospitalised in 1571 for six months in a rehabilitation unit in Corfu, after being seriously injured in the Battle of Nafpaktos.
In Spain, when the dictator Franco in 1963 condemned the award of the Prix Formentor International Literary Prize as a spiritual controversy against his regime and forbade its recurrence on Spanish land, intellectuals sought refuge in Corfu. The place that hosted the shipwrecked Odysseus and was called the "island of salvation" by the Serbs, welcomed the European writers expelled by a tyrannical regime, showing its solidarity and support for the free European spirit.
During these dark times that our world is going through once again, we honor hospitality and solidarity by raising a glass of wine together with Yerevan, Constantinople, Naples, Belgrade, Madrid, Ioannina and Chania, drinking to the health and solidarity of the humanity.
Festival Programme
Saturday 24 September
Opening Ceremony
People's Garden
18:00-21:00
- Welcome addresses.
- Presentation of the Culinary Traveller of the Year Award by the Corfu Chefs' Club.
- Music and tastes from the honoured areas (Armenia, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Crete, Epirus and Asia Minor).
- Exhibition of wines and local products from the Ionian Islands and the participating areas.
Sunday 25 September
Event for children - "Learning the tastes of my town by playing"
Sea Scout Base, Potamos
11:00-13:00
The Ionian Islands Regional Agrifood Partnership with the 5th Potamos Sea Scout Group are organising at the Sea Scout Base in Potamos an activity for children. Special educational material, quizzes and games related to healthy Ionian diet, traditional products of the Ionian Islands and the protection of the environment. Healthy snacks will be offered to the children, as well as gifts with educational material.
Workshop on wine's culture
People's Garden
11:00-13:00
- Discussion on wine traditions in Corfu, Serbia, Italy, Italy, Spain, Crete and Armenia.
- Wine as a reason for a journey (wine tourism).
- Tasting of wines from the honoured areas.
Monday 26 September
Ionian Islands inspire literature
People's Garden
18:00-19:00
- The Greek-American author Yvette Manessis Corporon will read excerpts from her books.
Yvette Manessis Corporon is an Emmy Award–winning author and producer. She is the author of the books "When the Cypress Whispers" (Harper, 2014), "Something Beautiful Happened" (Howard, 2017) and "Where The Wandering Ends" (2022, Harper Muse). To date, Yvette's books have been translated into 16 languages.
Crete in Corfu
People's Garden
19:00-21:00
- Open event with flavours and music from Crete. Guest chef Nektaria Kokkinaki.
Wednesday 28 September
Ionian Islands inspire literature
Erikoussa
11:00-15:00
- The Greek-American author Yvette Manessis Corporon will read excerpts from her books.
Thursday 29 September
Serbia in Corfu
People's Garden
19:00-22:00
- Musical event dedicated to the Serbs who had refuge in Corfu.
- Premiere of the movie: "King Petar the First".
King Petar the First (2018)
125m | Drama, History
Director: Petar Ristovski
Starring: Lazar Ristovski, Milan Kolak, Radovan Vujovic, Danica Ristovski
King Petar The First, as a young man is banished from Serbia. Many years later, he returns to his country to liberate its people and secure parliamentary democracy and starts the reconstruction of Serbia.
Festival’s Parallel World
The organisation and implementation of a festival nowadays must be designed so that it can be flexible (without being altered) easily and functionally.
The pandemic has shown us a new world, more or less the world of 5G, with new social and professional behaviours, with teleconferences, remote users, virtual and augmented reality.
The challenges and opportunities created by crises, such as the current war and energy deadlock, are a train we should have already boarded.
Based on this reasoning, Corfu Food & Wine Festival tried in 2021 an innovative hybrid method. We implemented actions in Corfu with livestreaming and actions in other cities of the world, a world that could not travel and participate due to Covid.
This experience gave us strength to continue and improve this practice. See what our upcoming events are and choose the ones you would like to attend.
In cooperation with the respective Embassies of the participating countries, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Tourism, GNTO and ERT, we are organising events in cities from which the persecuted fled to Corfu.
Wine & Poetry
Charents Museum of Literature and Arts
Yerevan, Armenia.
An event dedicated to the Armenian poet Constant-Ivan Zarian, who connects Armenia with Corfu, Spain and the whole intellectual world of the early 20th century.
Literature & Freedom
January 2023
Event in Madrid
- Poetry and wine event in collaboration with the GNTO office in Spain and an invitation to Fundación Formentor to hold the Prix Formentor literary competition in Corfu in 2023 on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of hosting the 3rd Prix Formentor.
- Promotion of wine relations between Spain and Greece: the case of Malvasia Wine.
- Promotion of local products from both countries.
A common homeland
February 2023
Belgrade
Musical event with Beethoven's 9th Symphony in a bombed-out building.
Together
March 2023
Open Market or Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella
Naples
Greek national composer Nikolaos Mantzaros, along with the famous composer Niccolò Zingarelli, developed in Naples the movement that later became established as the Heptanese school in music. Eighty years later, the musicians of Corfu raised money to support and stand by the earthquake victims of Naples. Just like our national poet Dionysios Solomos stood by the Italian fugitive poets Regaldi and Tomaseo when he offered them shelter in Corfu. We are celebrating this 'togetherness' in Naples with a musical event, which highlights the relationship between the two areas.
