Enchanted Realms: A Magical Celebration at the Fairy Festival 2023
Cyherbia’s Fairy Festival 2023! Since the last Fairy Festival in 2019, after 4 long years, it has made a powerful comeback!
The annual Fairy Festival celebrates spring, fairy tales and mythology through cosplay, games, storytelling and live action role play (LARP) and fairy-themed arts and crafts. This festival is one of many that Cyherbia Botanical Park organizes annually and it attracts people of all ages in the island to attend, as well as tourists. Cyherbia is the only venue that organizes Fairy Festival in Cyprus and by word of mouth and digital exposure, this festival attracts bigger numbers of both adults and children alike, every year.
Hundreds of people travelled from around the island, wearing incredible fantasy costumes, some of which they handcrafted themselves! At the annual Fairy Festival, attendees may dress up as fairies, elves, or other magical creatures, and participate in various activities and shows. They also have the opportunity to meet and interact with other fairy enthusiasts, share their love of fairy tales and folklore, and immerse themselves in a whimsical, enchanted atmosphere.
Hundreds of people travelled from around the island, wearing incredible fantasy costumes, some of which they handcrafted themselves!
Cosplay is a hobby of Miranda (Founder and Herbalist of Cyherbia) and her daughter Melina (Digital Marketing Director of Cyherbia). They love attending Comic Con and fantasy festivals in Europe and take inspiration from these, as well as fiction books, songs and art. The team dress up as fantasy characters with costumes that they have gathered and made over the years – their attic is full of costumes!
“What are you dressing as this year?” is a question that Cyherbia Team ask each other before each annual festival. This excites everyone, as well as decorating and getting everything organized. But the most satisfying and fulfilling feeling, that gets us all so excited and over the moon, is seeing people attend in their own costumes and entering the same spirit that we are in.
When a group of people gets into the same mindset, it can be described as a shared or collective consciousness. This term refers to the idea that a group of individuals can share the same thoughts, emotions, and beliefs, and act as a collective entity. This is what happens when the team and visitors share the same concept:
In a shared consciousness, the individuals in the group feel a sense of unity, cooperation, and connectedness. Suddenly, we share the same goal, purpose and identity, on a day where fantasy and magic become reality. This creates a powerful sense of solidarity and belonging, which is very positive and motivating. It gives us the drive to go bigger and better next time.
This is why we feel our festivals are important, because by sharing the concept of fantasy and creativity, it inspires us and even though we may not all know each other personally, we feel that for a day, we are all united!
This year the festival has attracted hundreds of families from around the island and tourists. Visitors enjoyed activities in all areas of the park such as archery, ring tilting, javelin, hula hoop, maypole dancing, stiltwalking, facepainting, soap & candle making workshops, Live Action Roleplay battles & combats, Steampunk Alchemy Show, Cotton Candy Show and Costume parade & competition.
At Fairy Festival 2023, adults & children participated in LARP (Live Action Role Play), organized by Battle for Honor. With safe and visually realistic crafted weapons such as swords, knives, shields, they demonstrate how LARP is played and how to attack and shield during a battle. After the explaining the rules of the game and the differences of using each weapon, Battle for Honor invite the public to participate in a battle game.
Moreover, on different times of the day, Battle for Honor take the public on an immersive and imaginative storytelling quest in the Woodland. The public gets swords and shields and they go on a quest to save the princess from the evil witch’s cottage. Along the way, they must fight the evil knights and find precious gems, which they will use to bribe the witch to give them back the princess.
After defeating the knights and finding the precious gems, the witch stops them outside the cottage and asks them to solve riddles. When they solve them, she asks for the gems. When she is satisfied with the amount of gems that she is given, she releases the princess. The princess thanks the children and grants them the chance to sit with them and take pictures with them.
Watch the aftermovie of Fairy Festival 2023
The fellowship of Cyherbia Botanical Park!
