In recent years it has been the fashion for local yiortes to avoid the traditional multi-course meal, and charge only a small entrance fee, leaving visitors to purchase their own food choices from a buffet. This has been appreciated by many who did not feel inclined to consume large quantities of meat and carbohydrate on a hot summer’s evening, accompanied by traditional Cretan music played at deafening volume. The disadvantage for the organisers was uncertainty about the quantities of food which might be needed, with many people restricting themselves to downing large quantities of beer and wine.
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A new date for the Afrata Honey Festival
The Afrata Honey Festival, originally scheduled for 17th July but cancelled because of the death of Stefanos Skarakis, will now take place on Wednesday 21st August – at the end of the customary 40-day mourning period.
Continue readingThe Afrata Honey Festival revived
On Wednesday evening, July 19th, the Afrata Honey Festival was held for the first time since the end of the pandemic, at the old primary school in Afrata village – a handsome building set high above the road to Astratigos and overlooking Kolymbari bay, with an extensive courtyard in front seemingly designed for large-scale events. It was organised by the “Afrata Cultural Association ‘Peninsula of Peace’”, known to locals simply as “the Syllogos”, which had become somewhat moribund in recent years, partly because of Covid and possibly also through a lack of interest by the older generation who served on its committee. However, following elections earlier in the year the Syllogos had been revivified by an intake of young blood, and residents were waiting with interest to see what results this might bring.
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