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Istanbul will turn into a citywide arts and culture venue for nine days as the Türkiye Culture Route Festival brings concerts, exhibitions, theater, ballet, workshops and gastronomy events to locations across the metropolis from Sept. 26 to Oct. 4.
Organized by Türkiye's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Istanbul program marks the festival's sixth edition in the city. It began in 2021 as the Beyoglu Culture Route Festival before expanding into the broader Türkiye Culture Route Festival.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said the organizers see Istanbul not simply as a venue for individual events but as a cultural route in its own right, bringing together traces of different civilizations, beliefs and cultures.
He said the nine-day program would turn the city's squares, museums, historic buildings, performance venues and neighborhoods into meeting points for culture and the arts, while bringing together international orchestras, local performers, exhibitions, stage productions, gastronomy routes and children's activities.
The festival will open with a concert by Britain's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Turk Telekom Opera Hall of the Ataturk Cultural Center, widely known as AKM, one of Istanbul's main performing arts venues.
The music program will also bring in the National Arab Orchestra, which combines classical and contemporary interpretations of Arab music with orchestral traditions, alongside performances of Carmina Burana, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Busra Kayikci, Incesaz and the Presidential Classical Turkish Music Choir.
The eighth Istanbul International Folk Music Festival will also take place as part of the program.
Public concerts at Galataport Clock Tower Square will feature Ozcan Deniz, Oguzhan Koc, Murat Boz, Kirac, Simge, Poizi, Bengu, Ceza and Bayhan, while Aydilge, Resul Dindar, Poizi, Oguzhan Koc, Derya Ulug and Motive will take the stage at AKM's outdoor venue.
The performing arts program will include the Stanislavsky Ballet Gala at the AKM Theater Hall, staged under the artistic direction of the team that appeared at last year's Bolshoi Ballet Festival.
Other productions will include Swans, Carmen, Deliriyum, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Cinderella and Actually, There Is No Spoon, alongside musicals and opera productions aimed at children.
Visual arts will also feature prominently, with the AKM Gallery opening the exhibition Three Painters: Alaettin Aksoy, Mehmet Guleryuz, Komet, featuring works from the Taviloglu Collection.
Exhibitions, talks, a photography marathon, karaoke events, children's activities and workshops will also spread out across venues including the Tophane-i Amire Culture and Arts Center, Rami Library, Buyuk Camlica Mosque, Tarik Zafer Tunaya Cultural Center, Taksim Mosque Culture and Arts Center and museums around Istanbul.
The festival will also take visitors through Istanbul's food culture, with routes stretching from Beyoglu and Moda to the Bosphorus, Sile, Eminonu, Vefa and Sariyer.
The program will introduce participants to culinary stops ranging from long-established restaurants to street food, with separate routes covering Beyoglu, Galata, Karakoy, the Historic Peninsula, Fatih, Besiktas, Istinye, Kanlica, Beykoz, Sile and Kadikoy's Moda district.
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Chefs, academics and content creators Vedat Basaran, Maksut Askar, Emre Sen, Oguz Yenihayat, Ozge Samanci, Aylin Oney Tan and Kubra Yuzuncuyil will guide parts of the gastronomy program.
Full event details and the festival schedule are available through the Türkiye Culture Route Festival's official website and Instagram account.
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