Cultural Road Festival program launched
ISTANBUL
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced the 2024 program of the Türkiye Cultural Road Festival. “A success story has been written about the Türkiye Cultural Road Festival, which continues to grow, to be held in 16 cities in seven regions of Türkiye,” he said.
A press conference was held at Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) on March 25 to launch the 2024 program of the event with the participation of names from the art world, including Tamer Karadağlı, General Director of the State Theaters.
Following a performance by the Istanbul State Ballet and Opera, Ersoy pointed out that the Cultural Road Festival is one of the largest and richest brand projects in Türkiye.
Emphasizing that product diversity and branding in tourism is one of the most important goals of the ministry, Ersoy said, “This magnificent geography we live in, and our cultural values offer us everything that will enable us to achieve this goal. It is important to know how to use them correctly. Türkiye Cultural Road Festival is one of these truths. This point we have reached is the result of our cultural policies, each step of which we carefully consider, with the vision of 'tourism integrated with culture and art.' By considering sustainability, we have built an ecosystem where tourism and culture and art nourish each other.”
Stating that they plan to further expand the scope of the festival this year, Ersoy said, "We continued to include different artists and art institutions from Türkiye and the world in every festival, which we started with the participation of more than 2,000 artists in 2021. By 2023, the number of artists participating in the festival reached 34,000. This year our goal is 40,000 artists.”
Ersoy pointed out that the number of festival venues is also increasing every year and that they aim to increase the number of venues to over 600 in 2024. Last year, 5,000 events were organized, and this year, they aim to increase the number of events to 6,000.
Festival to kick off in Adana
Ersoy said that this year's festival program, which will span over eight months, will start with the Orange Blossom Carnival in the southern province of Adana on April 13-21. The festival will be held between May 25-June 2 in Şanlıurfa, June 1-9 in Bursa, June 8-16 in Samsun, June 22-30 in Trabzon, June 29-July 7 in Van, Aug. 3-11 in Nevşehir, Aug. 17-25 in Erzurum, and Aug. 31-Sept. 8 in Çanakkale, Ersoy added. He stated that the Gaziantep Cultural Road Festival, which also includes the Gaziantep International Gastronomy Festival (Gastroantep), will be held on Sept. 14-22.
Stating that the Konya Mystic Music Festival, which is included in the program with the Ankara leg that starts on Sept. 21, will conclude on Sept. 29.
The Istanbul Cultural Road Festival will be held on Sept. 28-Oct. 6, Ersoy said, adding that the festival will also be held in Diyarbakır on Oct. 12-20, in İzmir on Oct. 26-Nov. 3 and in Antalya on Nov. 2-10.
Ersoy said that on the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso's death, an exhibition featuring more than 80 original works of the painter, will be presented to art lovers in different cities for three months, and in this context, the works of artists such as Sebastiao Salgado, Güvenç Özel, Refik Anadol and Frida Kahlo will also be exhibited.
He also said that a digital exhibition titled “Atatürk on Road to Culture,” will also be included in the festival.
As for the artists, he said, “We cooperate with European, Latin American, Asian and African countries in both visual and performing arts. We will host Deutsches Symphonie-Orchestra Berlin, Estonian Orchestra and Chorus, Chinese Stage Performances and many other international surprise teams and orchestras on our stages. Grammy-winning trumpet player Chris Botti, one of the biggest names in jazz music, will present magnificent concerts to art lovers with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra [CSO].”