Cyprus has seen a resurgence of regional pride, whereby local produce from source to production is being celebrated, agricultural heritage is becoming agricultural destiny and Athienou is proud to be part of this revival movement.
Small scale village events and festivals have always been held in Cyprus, kind of like anniversary’s carrying the close family feel with the central theme based on a agricultural product, whether it be strawberries or potatoes. The harvest has always been of special significance to locals, but the inspiring element, is that these festivals are getting the coverage they deserve and are organically open to the rest of Cyprus and gradually overseas.
On Sunday 7 October, approximately 15,000 turned up to celebrate this authentically Cypriot event. The Athienou Municipality organises the Pancyprian Festival of Athienou Products, aiming at the promotion of the local produce. The Festival is under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, who have been progressive in their approach to build up Cypriot trade from the ground up!
The village of Athienou is famous for its long history of wheat growing and traditional breadmaking, as well as for its halloumi, and the festival encompassed the celebration of these customs with day-long festival.
The event was held at Konstantinio Municipal Park of the Athienou Municipality located in the Larnaka District of Cyprus. Entrance to the festival was free of charge, a massive bonus to locals, nationals and tourists alike to be able to experience such a family friendly festival with the opportunity to meet local exhibitors, the ever-welcoming people of Athienou.
Visitors had the pleasure of watching halloumi and bread making demonstrations and the opportunity to sample the freshly produced products. The local producers created a street market type of environment whereby visitors could try and buy traditional products.
As expected from a Cypriot festival there was also an entertainment programme and visitors had the opportunity to listen to the sounds of Rumba Attack, a band with distinct instrumental flamenco-style mixed in with some middle eastern sounds whilst attaching certain rock elements, truly quite unique! The headline act was none other than CyWineFest’s veteran, Stavros Konstantinou live!
Authenticity was a theme running through this festival with traditional local breads of different kinds, loukoumia, as well as other types of meat and dairy products, homemade marmalades, spoon sweets, nuts, eggs, homemade pasta and other products.
The event was presented famous Television actress and presenter and the very popular radio station Love FM host Christina Artemiou. The event was jam packed with twelve hours of out and out fun, beginning at 11:00 and closing at 23:00 In the morning, young guests will have the opportunity to cook with local products and get involved in children’s workshops and activities.
This and many similar events held all over Cyprus, shows a great willingness from the Cypriot people as well as tourists to boost the circulation of Cypriot produce, it is an amazing movement to be part of, this changing attitude will build itself up to translate to a nationwide escapade to promote the produce of the land. Tens of thousands of people turning up to a village festival is a very exciting prospect.
We have seen it first hand from our very own events that people are seeking out the authentic, that artificialness is slowly becoming a thing of the past, perhaps one day the children of the future will be seeking out pasteli and soutzouko instead of branded chocolate bars or a switch from cheap mass-produced wine of massive corporations to the boutique wines of Cyprus. A perfect example of ‘going indigenous’ is that for the very first time, CyWineFest 2018 opened and an ran a Cocktail bar, many special thanks go to Themi Loizou for helping us come up with the recipes for our CyWineFest – Cypriot Cocktail Menu, at our reviews at the end of each day, we were surprised to see that the most popular cocktails sold, ‘Aphrodite’s Garden’ was actually a LOEL Zivana based cocktail!
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Credit: www.athienou.org.cy
George Charalambous
