Houdetsi Festival is a free 4-day musical celebration taking place in the begining of August. The small traditional village welcomes visitors and musicians from around the globe   Music is in the air as you walk up the small hilly road to the village of Houdetsi. Young and old, Greek and foreigners, parents and\u00a0 children, dressed up\u00a0 in light summer clothes following the thread of music. And Oop\u2019s there it is!   You turn right into the mystic garden of the Labyrinth. The Rampamp of Daud Khan Sadozai\u00a0 travels you in the foothills\u00a0 of the \u00a0Himalayas. \u00a0Spectators are lured by the strange sounds performed skillfully in the familiar garden of the old stone house under the big\u00a0 walnut tree. Further up the road in front of the square Ross Daly, dressed in cr\u00e8me talks with his fans.   A music festival directed by the aclaimed irish-born Ross Daly Ross is the artistic director and \u201csoul\u201d of the festival. Originally from Ireland, has lived in Houdetsi since 1982 where he operates the Labyrinth music workshop.\u00a0 He views the festival as an opportunity to bring together artists and visitors from all over the world. He feels that their interaction with the Cretan community and the music promotes a constructive, fruitful exchange of artistic values and ideas. A\u00a0 trail full of local aromas, flavours and colours literary connects the five music stages of Houdetsi Festival You walk by the square, where several groups are enjoying their dinner. You then turn right into the small road leading to the exhibition. Pottery, jewellery, tapestry, home-made cosmetics and goodies and even instruments crafted by local craftsmen are for sale. A fruitful interchange of local craftsmen and craftswomen with the music fans. \u00a0On the three stages that are along the road, the lyra, the saz and the laouto engage in social \u00a0intercourse to the ears of the devoted listeners. Yummy street food is prepared on the spot, in Crete’s most popular music festival On the other side of the square, children are playing hide and seek, next to the main stage(spiliada), while hungry visitors are enjoying freshly cooked\u00a0 street-food. Souvlaki on the charcoal, french fries cooked from locally grown\u00a0 potatoes in olive oil, traditional loukoumades flavored with Cretan honey. But which is the greatest hit with the locals? Surprisingly enough is \u00a0falafel- the \u201cvegetarian burgers\u201d of the Midlle East. It is the period of fastening ahead of the assumption of Mary, celebrated on the 15th of August after all. An intense musical journey in the east-west conjunction that has chararcterised Crete for the last 5000 years Back in Spiliada, the\u00a0 band playing Irish folk music just finished\u00a0 and \u00a0now is the turn of Haig Yazdjian band.\u00a0 The \u00a0music of the popular Sirian-Armenian\u2019s mingles the music of the \u00a0east mediterranean with that of the middle east. The audience is carried away, but it is the\u00a0 performance of \u00a0Xylouris-White that comes next that attracts the most attention.\u00a0 Xylouris (or Psarogiorgis), comes from a well known music family of the area. The Cretan lauto player has formed an \u201cexotic\u201d duo \u00a0with the \u00a0Australian drummer Jim White of the rock band Dirty Three. Their music, full of playful intros and delicate musical motifs, is an intense journey in the east-west conjunction. \u00a0That same conjunction that has chararcterised Crete for the last 5000 years. Houdetsi Music Festival is an unparallel journey of music, aromas and flair in this tiny village well hidden in a slope surrounded by vineyards. Three hours suffice to ramble from the most North-west island to one of the most south east islands of Europe and further ahead to a land down under via the hilltops of Himalayan. We visited Houdetsi festival on Thursday 4th of August 2016  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n