Nicosia, Cyprus, July 8, 2026. Diverse generations of Cypriots enjoyed this Wednesday, July 8, the opening of the 38th EDON Youth and Students Panchipriot Festival from the moat of the Famagusta Gate, in this capital city, an event that this year marks its seventy-fifth anniversary.
Welcoming the nearly five thousand attendees to its inaugural night, as expressed by Iakovos Tofaris, Central Organizing Secretary of the United Democratic Youth (EDON), this is an event designed to “celebrate life and struggle and is organized with passion and youthful enthusiasm by the women and men of EDON, the most vibrant, awake, capable, and revolutionary section of our youth.”
Three days in which “laughter and dreams come together with determination and altruism” so that renowned musical figures like Myrto Vasiliou, Dimitris Mesimeris, Fuse, PYX LAX, Miltos Paschalidis, and Vasilis Papakonstantinou could take the attendees on an unparalleled musical journey from the event's main stage.
Cuba warmly welcomes such dedication, solidarity, and every inch of effort by the youngest Cypriots of EDON at their festival, an event that, from its opening greetings, shared its welcome with the president of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, Gonzalo Lopes, along with representatives of fraternal organizations from Palestine and Lebanon, who also today honored the event with their presence, despite the “extremely difficult situation their countries are facing.”
Iakovos Tofaris, Central Organizing Secretary of EDON, called for respect and gratitude in being able to continue “the difficult and uphill path opened many decades ago by pioneering comrades of the AKEL Party”; in their fight for a better world and a future where their homeland is free and reunited; “a world in which humanity has forever freed itself from imperialists and their henchmen; in which the Palestinians return victorious to their homes and in which heroic Cuba under Che and Fidel—today subjected to an economic blockade—has triumphed over the United States' war machine.”
These last iconic and historical symbols of that rebellious, resilient, and victorious island were honored with multiple spaces, voices, and thoughts among the attendees at the first day of the 38th edition of the EDON Youth and Students Panchipriota Festival. This was confirmed by the Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba in Cyprus, Rubén Pino Martínez, present at its inaugural evening, once again convinced that #CubaIsNotAlone.
Embassy of Cuba in Cyprus.