Entertainment   Paphos Aphrodite Festival  Opera lovers should not miss the annual Paphos Aphrodite Festival that takes place in the coastal city each September Every year the festival organizers invite a wellknown opera troupe to the city to perform an opera Past performances include Verdis La Traviata and Aida Bizets Carmen and Puccinis Turandot  The Paphos Aphrodite Festival was organized for the first time in  and since then has become one of the most popular events in Cyprus  The perfect mood and environment for almost any opera performance is created by the very location of the Paphos Aphrodite Festival The event takes place in the open air at the square in front of the medieval castle of Paphos  For more information please call on      Cyprus Marathon  Cyprus Marathon takes place every March in the Paphos area Professional and amateur runners from all over the world come to Cyprus to participate in this sporting event It incorporates three different distances the Marathon Half Marathon and  km Road Race  The starting point of the Cyprus Marathon is at Petra tou Romiou the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite and it finishes with a long section of road on the Paphos seafront at the Paphos Medieval Castle square  Cyprus Marathon is not only a well organized sporting event with excellent facilities for the runners It also incorporates a number of activities such as traditional Cypriot and Greek dancing which make it a fun event for all the family and friends  For more information please call on     Dionysia Festival  Every year in the end of hot summer Stroumbi village of the Paphos district holds a festival in honor of Dionysus the famed Greek god of wine Therefore Dionysia Festival is a celebration of the islands great wines  First time Dionysia Festival was organized in  when a group of people from the community established the Dance of the Grape which took place in the village square and lasted for one day Later the event took the form of a threeday festival and grew over the years into one of the biggest and most important events of its kind in the country  The program of the Dionysia includes many wine exhibits traditional Cypriot and foreign dances and songs games local arts crafts fruits vineproduce and flowers displays Throughout the duration of the festival plenty of grapes and palouze must jelly are offered for free On the last night of the festival a Star Dionysia and a Miss Grape are voted after a dance contest  For more information please call on