The success of the 2nd Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival, which was organized for the second year, from 22 to 25 September, exceeded all expectations.
The unique Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival / Science Games, aroused the interest of the students of the island, students from Rhodes but also the teachers and visitors of the island.
During the days of the Festival, Kastellorizo experienced a real celebration of science.
What we saw at the Puzzle Festival:
Puzzles, experiential workshops, scientific activities, mathematical tricks, Stand up Science for children and not only, exhibitions of tactile puzzles, film / music workshops, puzzle competitions and educational programs that combined Art and Science.
Also, guided tours of the Puzzle Museum, hiking, stargazing, sun observation, ghosts that… ran around, fairy tales, dancing, and an excellent concert with Suzana and Eleni Vougioukli
A great contribution to the island was the initiative of the organizing committee of the Puzzle Festival for the installation of an automatic external defibrillator and the series of rescue and first aid courses, with the certification of residents of the island, in the framework of the Kids Save Lives program, with the support of Vioryl.
Some exceptional companions of the organizing committee were the more than 70 academics, researchers, scientists, educators and artists who worked and presented actions specifically adapted to the spirit of the Puzzles and the understanding of knowledge through games.
The organization was carried out by EN.I.G.MA (Union of Ideas, Puzzles, Mathematics), where the most important element of its action is the Megisti Puzzle Museum, in collaboration with the Region of the South Aegean and the Municipality of Megisti.
Valuable helpers were the Ministries of Development / General Secretariat for Research & Innovation, National Defense, Culture & Sports, Shipping & Island Policy, which placed the Festival under their auspices, while the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation and the Ministry of National Defense supported it financially.
We must also express our heartfelt thanks to the private sponsors who supported this great voluntary effort, showing love and trust. We must also express our heartfelt thanks to the private sponsors who supported this great voluntary effort, showing love and trust.
Similar support was provided by the large number of media/sponsors with a series of announcements, interviews and screenings.
And because a fair wind is blowing from Kastellorizo, the Puzzle Festival disembarks in Patras (21-23/10) and then in Athens (16-18/12).
And at the same time, preparations for the 3rd Puzzle Festival begin.
The 1st Puzzle Festival took place in Kastellorizo last September and had some unexpected success. It was an event of national importance, a voluntary initiative, an organization of high scientific level and above all, a great celebration of science which offered new knowledge to the public of the island, of all ages and cognitive levels.
More than fifty scientists/ researchers from the country’s universities and research institutions, and well-known artists shared the dream of the founder of the Megisti Puzzle Museum, Pantazis Houlis, who was embodied in the idea of Eleni Grammatikopoulou, known for her long experience in the field of science communication, and enthusiastically took part in the 3-day events of the 1st Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival.
Through a series of scientific events, happenings and artistic events with the main theme focusing on puzzles, the Puzzle Festival gave the opportunity to students from the island, but also from Rhodes and to adult locals and visitors to see and hear, but also to express themselves, to understand, to experiment, to create, to think and to experience science as an exciting experience!
Kastellorizo has a long tradition in puzzles and it is no coincidence that from our remote island come the only two unique Greek puzzle experts, Pantazis Houlis and Michail Toulouzas, who represent Greece, actively, at the International Puzzle Party, while the Megisti Puzzle Museum (the only one in Greece and one of the very few worldwide), which has been operating for three years, has been declared as a European STARTS Centre (i.e. Science, Technology and ARTS).
In parallel, the Puzzle Festival continued in the form of Puzzle Workshops held weekly during the school year, where parents and children exchanged and shared knowledge through educational games. Our vision is to inspire young and old, to expose them to attractive applications and mechanisms, and to transform Kastellorizo into a global centre for the creation of quality and innovative puzzles.
The 2021 Puzzle Festival ended with the assurance that this can and should become an institution that will bring the remote island from the edge of the European Union to the centre of international scientific interest, and that Kastellorizo can now be proud because from now on it will export culture.
We want this wish to become a reality and with the conviction that the communication of science – beyond stereotypes – is always within the goals of a well-governed society, we decided to repeat the Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival on the island in September (22-25/9) but also to take one more step forward: to allow the festival to “travel” off the island with a first stop in Patras (The old municipal slaughterhouses of Patras 21-23/10) and with the next one in Athens (former Public Tobacco Factory 16-18/12) in collaboration with the Parliament’s Library. Both of these events will focus on puzzle themes.
The organization is carried out by EN.I.G.MA (Union of Ideas, Puzzles and Mathematics), where the most important element of its action is the Megisti Puzzle Museum, in collaboration with the Region of The South Aegean and the Municipality of Megisti. The Ministries of Development/General Secretariat for Research & Innovation, National Defence, Culture & Sports, Shipping & Island Policy placed it under their auspices.
For more information about the 1st Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival
please visit 1st Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival 2021
you may watch the videos from the “1st Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival 2021” www.youtube.com
Finally… just as the new logo of the Puzzle Festival refers to an Unexplained Object (beyond the three dimensions), the Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival itself is an event of inexplicable success.
Or can it be explained? We leave that to you!!!
Welcome again this year (!) to the Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival, where we do not just repeat events of the past, but we write history by exporting traditional, innovative, creative culture
- from Kastellorizians to Kastellorizo,
- from Kastellorizo to the rest of Greece,
- and from Greece to all the world!
For 2022, the new logo of the Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival (designed by Pantazis Choulis) refers to an inexplicable object. More specifically, each letter has been divided into two parts, one above and one below, which seem to have the same dimensions at the points of contact of their intersection. However, their shadows and angles create the illusion that the upper part has a difference of 90 degrees from the bottom. In this way, an object is presented that is impossible to exist in our three-dimensional world, and is a visual puzzle.
Radio Spot – Kastellorizo Puzzle Festival 2022