Living in or visiting North Cyprus you’ll probably be pleased to know that there is plenty of nightlife available – and whether you’re a pub fan or a dancing queen (!), there is a wealth of night-time activity to keep you occupied.

Don’t get us wrong, North Cyprus is as peaceful and tranquil as you want it to be, but once in a while it’s nice to know that you are not far from some entertainment like dancing, singing or just listening to some good music within a disco atmosphere for example.  We have also covered the pubs and bars of North Cyprus in a separate article if you’re not a disco lover!

Before we begin however, we would like to share a little bit of information with you just so that you know in advance!  Clubs and discos are most definitely clubs and discos in North Cyprus, but night clubs are something altogether different where ladies of the night earn a living – we won’t go into any further details, but suffice to say, if you want to go dancing just stick to the clubs or discos!

We’ll start with the open air clubs in North Cyprus; often these are located in or next to hotels or beach clubs, and one of the most popular ones is Escape Beach Club in Alsancak – well known for some fantastic international DJ nights and for having a fun party twist.  Escape also has a well stocked bar and heaps of room to dance around, allowing you to have a memorable night out!  Recently relocated a few hundred metres nearer to its sister restaurant 5 Mile, Escape is open really only for the main summer months – but it’s definitely one of the best clubs on the island, North or South.

Practically next door to Escape you have the relative newcomers of ICE and Barcode – again these are both night venues where you can party away to your heart’s content.  These places don’t really start pumping until around 10pm though, so don’t arrive too early!  Other clubs around the same area of Alsancak and Lapta are Sunset Beach and Camelot which have the occasional big bash, and they will normally be advertised in the press.

Club Nightpark in the heart of Kyrenia and next to the main car park area is one of the best clubbing hotspots at weekends – again they have DJ slots and play heaps of up to date club music.  They even carry on in the winter-time with DJs travelling from all over to put on some excellent party nights.

There are plenty of others in the Kyrenia area but they do tend to change ownership and name on a regular basis so we don’t want to fill our article with names that are only around for a few months! However there are others which are stalwarts for DJ sets and club music nights such as Club Acapulco which is located within the Acapulco Resort itself, and even some of the hotels have some good nightspots like the Zeta Club at the Jasmine Court Hotel.  Slightly further east you also have the Mansion Club which has been opened by the Malpas Hotel, and with a beachfront location and chilled out décor it’s bound to attract the young crowd as well as some decent DJs.

In Famagusta you have Lions Gardens, which is a huge complex offering more than just a club venue.  Again Lions Garden carries on throughout the year with international DJ sets and it finds a wide variety of excuses to hold various parties too! Some of the bigger hotels such as the Salamis Conti and Bilfer Palm Beach also have their own disco facilities, but we have to admit we haven’t tried them so can’t give them a rating here.

Lefkoşa unfortunately seems a bit bereft of anything remotely club like – although there is possibly the odd one or two, but as the city’s not on the coast it’s not going to be the best place to have a club venue anyway in our opinion.

With regard to getting in to any clubs in North Cyprus, you do have to be aged 18 or over and should carry some ID with you if you think you look younger!!  Lads do have to pay to get into some of the clubs, whereas girls often get in for free – maybe this has something to do with them being more mature about drinking – unlikely but worth the comment!  Taxis are always around, and the clubs should look after you by calling one if you require, but bear in mind that there are also water taxi services to take people back to Kyrenia should you fancy that!

If you are not a clubber by nature but do like some good old fashioned rock and roll, jazz or latin, or maybe you like club music but in a smaller venue, then please check our feature on pubs and bars, or click on any of the links within this article to find out more about venues in North Cyprus.

North Cyprus has a large festival scene, and there are more and more festivals being formed every year it seems!

The festival season spans roughly six to seven months of the year, with the first events being held around April time and the last ones finishing off in late October, early November.  So you can try to catch one when you’re visiting, or even attend a few if you’re living here on the island!

Village fairs have grown in popularity over the last few years, and some are extremely popular, enabling the public to see traditions and cultural mainstays of Turkish Cypriot life, as well as giving the local population a chance to show off their skills and wares.  The Olive Festival in Zeytinlik for example has really got on the media bandwagon to promote itself, and you can now find out about the festival and the schedule via its Facebook group!  However, the local press will also always publicise these events with schedules appearing nearer the opening of the event.

You can see cookery displays, arts and crafts demonstrations, competitions and also most popular are the folk dance displays that give a great insight into the skill of the dancers as well as the stories that they tell.  You can see and buy lots of local products made in their traditional fashion, and even have a go at making some of them too at the Büyükkonuk Eco-festival.  Festivals are generally organised by the local municipality, and sponsors are often sought to provide finances for some of the larger exhibitions and displays.

North Cyprus is also becoming well known for its international musical events that never fail to impress – with some big names now attending the most popular events.  You can find out about these via the websites set up to promote and detail the names which will be taking part each year.  There are a wide range of artists who take part, from classical tenors to Turkish pop singers, as well as some old favourites such as Boney M and Bonnie Tyler who have performed here in the recent past!

The International Bellapais Music Festival held in May each year at the stunning Bellapais Monastery venue near Kyrenia, has now been running for over 10 years and has featured some truly international classical groups, orchestras and individuals to amaze the crowds.  Equally the International Famagusta Art & Culture Festival is growing in stature, again running now for over 10 years, with theatre and music events mostly being held at the wonderful Salamis Antique theatre.  Find out more about this festival at www.magusa.org, and also via our article giving festival dates.

Besides music and village festivals there are also the cinematic and arts festivals of North Cyprus, featuring something for everyone to enjoy.  Please visit our other festival page for a round up of the individual festivals in North Cyprus as well as articles on folk dancing, cinema and arts for example.

Folk dancing has very deep roots here in North Cyprus and in fact, across Cyprus as a whole.  The rich history of this island means that its culture and arts such dancing have been influenced by many centuries and the traditions of the latter are being kept alive and well with folk dancing displays being given to the pubic on a regular basis. 

Dances were usually performed on big occasions such as at weddings and harvest days, but because of their popularity with the visiting public, and due to efforts by local folk arts organisation HASDER, dancing has now become something of an international ‘sport,’ with folk dancing competitions taking place in TRNC in which countries from all over the world participate.

One dance you are likely to see in North Cyprus that features both men and women is the traditional ‘kartchilamas’, this is a series of different dances combined, where dancers hold each others wrists and form a circle.  There are twelve basic steps and one main dancer leads the rest, with separate dances performed by both the men and women, with the men throwing swords into the air and catching them, and women dancing with clay pots, depicting their role as providers.

Dancers look brilliant in their traditional colourful attire, and dances can sometimes last for half an hour or so, meaning that training and practice is paramount to enable the performers to carry on for this amount of time!  North Cyprus folk dancing dresses come in a variety of colours depending on which area they are from, and they feature a long colourfully embroidered overdress called the Ucetek.  Brightly coloured shoes and a headscarf with tinkling gold coins are also worn to finish off the costume.  Men usually wear white shirts with black trousers and knee length boots, with a splash of colour provided by a bright waistcoat with a handkerchief, and a fez hat.

If you see a folk dance at a festival in North Cyprus it is likely to be performed to a taped version of the music, but sometimes you may be lucky enough to see the musicians accompanying them with instruments such as the ‘darbuka’ and ‘davul’ which are forms of drums, the ‘zurna’ which is a traditional reed instrument with a middle eastern sound, and also the violin – and sometimes even the mandolin and accordion.

There are also yearly international folk dance festivals and competitions on the island, and countries such as Russia, Serbia, Turkey and even Nigeria and Taiwan are invited to participate in a week-long celebration of traditional folk dancing.  Municipalities from Gönyeli and Iskele amongst others have folk dancing groups that also get to travel and show their art in other countries and at worldwide competitions.

One organisation, formed originally in 1977, is HASDER, its a folk arts foundation and initiative that aims to promote traditional Turkish Cypriot culture – from folk dancing to furniture making – and they have done a lot to instil the importance of Turkish Cypriot culture.

There are at least as many bars and pubs in Northern Cyprus as there are restaurants – which should tell you that there is a wide choice available to keep everyone happy whatever their own personal pub or bar preference.

We have split our article into sections so that you can see what kinds of venue cater for your preferred bar or pub experience choice, and which should give you an idea of the wide choice of venue type available too.  From family friendly to entertainment pubs offering activities such as karaoke or quizzes, from late night music bars to your good old fashioned English style pub, we have them all in TRNC.  You can also find out more about the music club scene in our related article which gives details on some of the clubs to dance the night away in.

Harbour Bars

The harbour in Kyrenia is unquestionably the most desirable place to while away an hour, an afternoon or even all night, and the horseshoe shaped harbour is home to a whole host of bars and restaurants.

From any of the bars located around the horseshoe shaped harbour you can sit and view all the comings and goings from one end of the strip to the other.  You can sit outside in the summer and people watch, or you can sit inside and listen to the excellent music with some bars having their own house bands and singers to entertain you.  It is definitely a good place to be seen and is frequented by ‘the beautiful people’ especially in the summer!  The decor in many venues is sophisticated, the staff efficient and the ambience is lively but relaxed.

Another nice spot is Boğaz with various bars located around its pretty little harbour area, where you can watch the sun go down of an evening.  Being a city Famagusta is obviously also home to numerous bars mostly with a more restaurant or club vibe to them but many are still worth checking out.

Night Bars

There are some really good night bars in Kyrenia, Lefkoşa and Famagusta, and we would love to be able to name a few for you, but given that a lot of them cease trading under one name and open up under another it would be silly of us to name all the venues available!  Suffice to say we would recommend that you seek them out and it’s not that hard as you can often just follow the ‘it’ crowd!

A couple however which seem to have been going for a few years in Kyrenia are the Cream Bar which you can find in Kyrenia town behind the harbour at its western end.  It has a really laid back and chilled out atmosphere. The other is the Ego Bar, which is located on the cobbled road heading back up into town from the eastern end of the harbour, it’s a great place to meet with friends, listen to some chill out music and it has beanbags and hammocks to really relax in!

In Lefkoşa there has been a growth in the trendy bar scene recently with the likes of the Cadi Kazani Café Bar which has regular themed nights as well as music, or the Narnia Rock Bar which has become extremely popular as a pub and music venue.

Music Venues

There seem to be more and more places to enjoy a night of live music in North Cyprus opening every year, whether you fancy listening to live bands or DJs.  Many of these venues are either on a beach in a club or a pub.  The harbour bars for example will often have live music on a Friday and Saturday night, with local singers doing sets late into the evening.

Hotels often have their own bars hosting music evenings, with jazz being a popular choice for people to meet up and listen to for a great evening’s entertainment – you will find top quality musicians and you can enjoy their music whilst sipping the odd cocktail!  You can often find out about these evenings through the hotels’ websites and in the local press.

For the more traditional music bar venues then try the Old Tunnel Rock Bar in Kyrenia, which doesn’t really get going until around 10pm but which has live music and a traditional bar in a rather dark but definitely atmospheric underground location! Or as above, the Narnia Pub or Cadi Kazani Café Bar both in the heart of Lefkoşa are good.  Both are traditional bar venues which also have some great bands playing on weekends and weeknights.  Another choice in Lefkoşa is the Arancia Nargile Café Car situated in the Selimiye area of Lefkoşa, which, depending on who’s playing that night, is open until 3am.

Traditional & Sports Pubs

Most of the traditional type pubs will also show sports events such as football and rugby, so we have merged the traditional pubs and sports bars into one section for you!

The most popular pub venues tend to be ones where expats will gather for a Saturday beer and to watch a game of footie.  These venues include the Castle Pub in Karaoğlanoğlu near to Kyrenia, where they have the obligatory big screen and serve a regular feast of quality pub grub.  Another is the Pine Bay Club just along the same main road to the west of Kyrenia which has the same kind of vibe to it, offering big screen sports events as well as darts and pool.

Alternatively there are various other traditional pubs offering draught beers such as the Crows Nest and Spot Bar in Karaman, the Stroll Inn in Karakum or the Back In Time bar in Kyrenia which is home to darts and pool teams too.

There are obviously many more, but we will let you explore to find them!

This article only just touches on what’s available, but if you’re after a place to start it should set you on the right track!  Of course all the hotels and holiday villages have their own bars for residents, and most are excellent offering a family friendly welcome.  Furthermore all the casinos on the island have their own bars as well…drinks are often free to those who come in to gamble…children are of course not allowed, but they offer an interesting alternative to an evening in a pub!  Many hotels, pubs and bars host karaoke and quiz evenings too, and you can more than likely find out about these through the Cyprus Today newspaper or you will see events listed on advertising boards outside the venues themselves.

Whatever your own personal preference for your evening’s entertainment, one thing’s for sure, the bars and pubs of Northern Cyprus will give you plenty of choice.

These venues not only draw the crowds, they draw some significant names as well, and are famous for hosting both classical and modern music events.  Prominent musicians take part in many of these events, and famous Turkish Cypriot national Turgay Hilmi, who himself is an artist of international fame, features heavily in the promotion of these events.

If you’re not particularly into music then there are plenty of local town and village festivals held every year such as the Olive Festival in Zeytinlik, and the Eco-tourism festival in Büyükkonuk.  These give a great introduction to the island, and an insight into traditional Turkish Cypriot culture.

Other events which may be of interest are the regular trade fairs, which form part of the festival season, these are held at the ‘Fuar’ venue in Lefkoşa.  These events often turn into a family outing, with a funfair, music and great cooking all enjoyed!  There is also an international film festival in North Cyprus which of course features foreign language films, so you have to be careful which one you pick to go and watch as it may not be in your native tongue!

Below is a list of the most regular festivals and the months in which they usually occur.  Exact dates vary from year to year, so keep an eye on this site and the local press for updates: -

April/May – International Spring Concerts

May – International Film Festival

June – Iskele International Folk Dance Festival

June/July – Güzelyurt Orange Festival & Iskele Festival

June/July – International Bellapais Music Festival

July – Esentepe Apricot Festival / Gönyeli Folk Dance Festival / Alsancak Folk Dance Festival

August – Mehmetçik Grape & Wine Festival

August – Yeniboğaziçi Pulya Festival

August – Golden Grapes Film Festival

September/October – North Cyprus International Music Festival

September/October – International Carob Festival

October – Zeytinlik Olive Festival

October – Büyükkonuk Eco-Tourism Festival

If you would like to know more about some of these events, please visit our more in-depth article on Festivals in our See & Do Section.