Major Turkish tech event TEKNOFEST kicks off in western Izmir province

The third edition of TEKNOFEST 2023, Türkiye's premier technology and aerospace event, has opened its doors to visitors in the country's Aegean city of Izmir on Wednesday.

The five-day festival at Izmir's Cigli Airport is set to feature competitions, air shows, exhibitions, and workshops, as visitors are able to experience vertical wind tunnels, simulations, and planetarium shows.

It has been jointly organized every year by the Turkish Technology Team (T3) Foundation and the country's Ministry of Industry and Technology since 2018, in cooperation with other ministries and dozens of other public institutions, private companies, and universities.

Exciting shows in the sky are also scheduled to take place, performed by the Turkish Air Force's Turkish Stars aerobatic demonstration team, as well as the Bayraktar Akinci and TB2 drones developed by Turkish company Baykar, and Anka by Turkish Aerospace Inc, another tech giant in the country.

Also slated to make appearances are Turkish air show team F-16 SoloTurk, as well as the Hurkus trainer aircraft, BELL-429 helicopter, paramotors, gyrocopters, and the T-129 Atak helicopter.

Anadolu has been among TEKNOFEST's media shareholders as a global communications partner of the event since the first edition.

The event was previously held in various Turkish cities in even years and in the metropolis of Istanbul in odd years. To mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Türkiye, the event was planned in three different provinces this year.

The first edition of the event this year was held at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport in May, welcoming a world record of 2.5 million visitors. The second was held earlier in September in the capital Ankara, attracting nearly 1 million people.

TEKNOFEST is being held with the participation of 121 institutions, public- and private-sector organizations, academic institutions, and media companies.