Çanakkale Culture Route Festival to begin on Aug 30
ÇANAKKALE
The northwestern province of Çanakkale will host the 10th stop of Türkiye’s Culture Route Festival, featuring more than 400 events across 34 venues between Aug. 30 and Sept. 7.
Çanakkale, a symbol of Türkiye’s epic struggle for independence and national unity, will host the Culture Route Festival for the fourth time this year. The city will come alive with concerts, exhibitions, workshops, talks, gastronomy experiences and family-friendly activities throughout the week.
As part of the festival, residents will explore the city’s rich cultural heritage through diverse exhibitions. One of the highlights will be “I Still Live,” a contemporary Palestinian art exhibition curated by Samed Karagöz, showcasing works by 16 Palestinian artists at the Manfred Osman Korfmann Library.
The festival program also features the “Şehzades and Sultans Toy Exhibition” at the Troy Museum, the “Heritage of Civilizations” exhibition at the Hamidiye Bastion, and “Layers of Time” by artist Kenan Işık at the Çanakkale City Museum. Another special showcase, “Farewell: A Martyr’s Diary in the Gallipoli War,” will present Lieutenant İbrahim Naci’s wartime journals at the Mehmet Akif Ersoy Public Library.
Concerts will take center stage with performances by popular artists including Buray, Resul Dindar, Tuğçe Kandemir, Ferhat Göçer, Ersay Üner, Suzan Kardeş & Serkan Çağrı, Haluk Levent, Bengü and Salman Tin at the Hamidiye Bastion’s open-air venue. The festival will also feature opera, ballet, folk music, sema performances and military band concerts.
On Aug. 30, Victory Day, a memorial dive will honor the 81 sailors who died in the 1953 sinking of the TCG Dumlupınar submarine. A professional team will place a commemorative plaque at the wreck site in the Dardanelles. The event will be followed by the “Çanakkale Memorial Dive” activities in early September.
The Gallipoli Historical Underwater Park will host an international underwater photography competition, documenting wartime wrecks while promoting cultural heritage and global visibility of the region.
For children, the “Kids’ Village” at Hamidiye Bastion will offer colorful activities, theater plays, workshops, thematic playgrounds, cartoon shows and art tents. Meanwhile, “Flavor Stops” across the city will showcase Çanakkale’s gastronomic heritage, with renowned chefs preparing traditional dishes, including those made from geographically indicated products.
The festival program also includes theater, photography marathons, panels and prison concerts aimed at bringing art to inmates as part of the Culture Route Festival’s outreach mission.
