Main celebration events underway

THE CELEBRATIONS to mark the 50th anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus continued yesterday at the Presidential Palace and will end today with the traditional October 1 military parade and the “Flagship event” at Tassos Papadopoulos- Eleftheria Stadium in Nicosia tonight.

Yesterday Demetris Christofias and the First Lady Elsie Christofias hosted a reception at the Presidential Palace to mark the anniversary. The reception was held between the hours of 6:30pm and 8:30pm and was open to the public.

A Presidential Palace source who was not authorised to speak to the press said: “The president usually meets the public on October 1. This year however due to his busy schedule and the many commitments he has on Friday he will be meeting with the public a day earlier than usual.”

The celebrations will continue today with a big military parade. The parade will start on Vikella Avenue in Strovolos and will run across Hadjiosif Avenue. The parade is due to start at 10am, an hour earlier than usual, and is expected to last 45 minutes. Christofias, the Greek Minister of Defence Evangelos Venizelos and the Cyprus Minister of Defence Costas Papacostas are all expected to attend the parade.

The celebrations will end tonight with an event at the Tassos Papadopoulos  Stadium, which is due to start at around 9pm. According to an official announcement :“The flagship event constitutes the peak of the anniversary programme, with the President as the main speaker.” At the event there will also be music, song, dance-theatre, visual effects and multimedia performances. Artists that are due to perform include George Kolias, Demetris Zavros, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Roman Kariolou and Savvas Savva.

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