HIDRELLEZ AT AHIRKAPI

With the leadership of the Armada’s founder Kasım Zoto and close cooperation with the "Ahırkapı Hıdrellez Festival Association", the Hıdrellez spring festivals were celebrated on Ahırkapı Street and around the Armada Hotel starting in 1999. Each year the event was celebrated on May 5th and in its first years it attracted hundreds of Istanbulites from every age group and walk of life. Enthusiasm for the event was out of this world and its popularity soared with attendance reaching the millions. In 2009, the Ahırkapı Hıdrellez Festival was made part of the "Istanbul Cultural Capital 2010,” series of events and was moved from Ahırkapı Street to the nearby seaside at "Ahırkapı Park".  Participants enthusiastically celebrated the arrival of spring accompanied by live music and dancing, enjoyed street flavors and "meze" dishes from the Armada, hopped over campfires and set up traditional "Nahıl,” or "Wishing Trees" and hung trinkets on them. Some of the groups who performed live at the festival were Buzuki Orhan, Little Hasan from Lüleburgaz and Tamer Kum, Göksenin İleri and Istanbul Songs, Macedonian Kochani Orchestra, Thrace All Stars, Ege Hicaz, Ahırkapı Roma Orchestra, Pire Mehmet and his Roma Orchestra, Babaeski Roma Orchestra, Macedonian Folk Orchestra, Roma-In-Jazz, Collective Istanbul, Semaver Kumpanya, Egyptian Ahmet Ritim Workshop, French Rakı Balkans Dj Set and Roma groups from Turkey and other regions around the world.  Of course, the park area soon surrendered to the overzealous crowds and personal safety became an issue. The Ahırkapı Hıdrellez Festival Association, with their mission accomplished, decided to stop organizing the event in 2011 and that festivals would no longer be organized at Ahırkapı. Instead, they encouraged groups to celebrate with their own festivals in their own neighborhoods.