Around Agrinio a panigiri sounds like Roumeli, the mountain heart of Central Greece: clarinet, lute and tsamiko in the square until morning. August is the month when almost every village, from Lake Trichonida to Xiromero and Valtos, throws its own feast.
Nothing on right now
May - September
Panigiria run from May to September, and the season peaks at Dekapentavgoustos - the Dormition, on 15 August - when most villages hold their feast. Each programme is set close to its own saint's day, so the list fills late and empties out of season.
Don't come expecting island violins. The music here belongs to Central Greece: tsamiko, three-step syrto and kalamatiano, with the singer and the clarinet setting the pace and a paid request - the paraggelia - opening the circle. In the Xiromero villages - Katouna, Astakos, Babini, Fyteies, Machairas - the panigiri is a full ritual: roast mutton on the tables, line dancing and a clarinet that tears at you. For small village cultural associations this one night is often the main income of the year, and it keeps the village going until the next summer. The area has a long memory of players too - Nikos Tzaras, in the early twentieth century, was the clarinettist everyone wanted in Xiromero, Valtos, Agrinio and Messolonghi.
Lake Trichonida, the largest natural lake in Greece, has more than twenty villages on its shores, and most of them celebrate during August. At Analipsi, the old Dervekista, the village's three-day feast at the end of the month is set up looking over the lake, with traditional music and dancing until dawn. At Mega Dendro near Thermo, Saint Kosmas the Aetolian is honoured on August 24; he was born in 1714 in the neighbouring village of Taxiarches in Apokouro, and the foundations of his family home are still preserved.
Agrinio itself, the old tobacco town at the heart of the plain, has its own big day on May 9, the feast of its patron Saint Christopher, when his icon is carried in procession through the streets. In summer, though, the town empties towards the villages: from July to the end of August, almost every Saturday night some square in Aetolia-Acarnania has a band, spits turning and people who came home for their saint's day.
In the villages around Lake Trichonida such as Analipsi, in Xiromero (Katouna, Astakos, Fyteies, Machairas) and in Valtos, peaking in August. See the current calendar on Mood.
The Roumeli tradition of Central Greece: clarinet and lute, tsamiko, three-step syrto and kalamatiano, with paid requests opening the dance. Nights usually run until morning.
Saint Christopher, the patron of Agrinio, is celebrated on May 9 with a procession of his icon through the town. The summer village feasts around Agrinio are listed on Mood.
