European Terrace Festivals 2019 - 2025

During the concluding session of the 4th International Congress on Terraced Landscapes in La Gomera in March 2019 the ITLA Team proposed to organise regional events of Reenchanting Terraces towards the 5th Congress in Bhutan. Lucka Azman from Ljubljana University and head of the Scientific Committee of ITLA assumed this agreement and contacted the Association Acqua Turris from Vrtovin in Slovenia and convened to organise the First European Day of Terraced Landscapes in August 2019.

The idea concretised in a gathering of European members of ITLA for several days and develop meaningful activities and practices interacting with local community members and authorities. The Aqua Turris Association: a local initiative for the preservation of terraced landscape in Vrtovin represented by Neli Kandus and Magda Saksida hosted our Reunion and organised a weekend of exchanges, festival, dry wall construction, visits to archaeological sites and food and wine tasting. At the end of the Festival an ITLA meeting took place in Goriska Brda with the presence of several network members from Europe.

Due to the COVID pandemic further plans for future European Days were stalled until 2023. While attending the Eucaland scientific workshop on Firescapes in Kalavasos (Larnaca) in Cyprus hosted by the Laona Foundation we met Sevina Floridou and Vassiliki Petropoulou Panayiotou. In Salamiou (Paphos) we exchanged ideas and shared the vision to organise the Second European Day of Terraced Landscapes in October 2023 with Terract, a local association from Salamiou to protect and promote the cultural landscapes.

The original plan of one European day of terraced landscapes was conceived with a larger time scope and a diversity of Programme activities. As Sevina Floridou describes in her report it expanded into a Second Festival with a sequence of processes and different activities illustrated with photos by the professional photographer Glyn Edwards. Terract and Sevina made programs for children and youth including dry stone wall construction as well as learning about terrace ecology. There were hikes to the Apostolic Olive trees and the medieval water mill on the Xeros River, also a historic path partially restored with dry stone walls on each side and gastronomic experiences with healthy local, delicious food and wine in Lagria tavern and winery.

The third festival in October 2024 included even more diverse activities. Vassiliki Petropoulou prepared the photographic report about the events in Salamiou. During the festival week we visited Agio Vavatsinias in the Troodos mountains to learn about their terraced landscapes and could discuss a new European project with the title Creative Islands with the local Phoenix association worried about wildfires and the abandonment of terraces in the midrange at 600 m altitude from east to west. Based on the activities with children and youth ITLA is planning a special edition of the ITLA Journal dedicated to Terrace Pedagogy in an upcoming volume.

We are looking now forward to the next festival in Cyprus in October 2025. This time in charge of Terract and ITLA Cyprus it is planned to include dry wall construction trainings, local wall construction and repair, art and film festival, placing the bird cages on the designated trails, organise a terrace workshop, promote the production of herbs on terraced fields and other activities of ITLA Cyprus. The European Terrace Festival is an interactive preparation of the caravan towards a next International ITLA Congress. Attending other events of ITLA members, like the Stone and Wine Festival in Krems organised by the Austrian Dry Stone Waller Association end of October 25 ahead of the 19th International Dry-Stone Wall Congress; the Art Festival of the Dolbitna Art School on Jeju Island in South Korea revitalises the spirit of our community and movement of terrace lovers. If you are also organising festivals on terraced landscapes, please share your information for further dissemination. The most outstanding characteristic of the festivals is the encounter of people for an intercultural and multilingual dialogue and exchange beyond borders and dogmas. Please communicate if you are interested either to join or to organise next Terrace Festivals for the benefit of the local community.

Is Perdas, Sardegna, August 2025

Note: Photos taken in this journal were taken by Glyn Edwards (EDTL 2023), Timmi Tillmann and Maruja Salas (2024) and by members of Terract.