Arta celebrates at two altitudes: on the plain around the city, where each village keeps its own calendar of saint's days, and high in the Tzoumerka range, where the feast is held in the village square and the klarino carries it through to sunrise.
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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.
The mountain villages of Tzoumerka - Pramanta, Melissourgi, Theodoriana, Agnanta, Katarraktis, Athamanio and Vourgareli - are the heart of the prefecture's panigiria. The calendar opens in mid-July and thickens through late August: July 17 for Agia Marina, July 20 for Profitis Ilias on the summits, July 26 for Agia Paraskevi, July 27 for Agios Panteleimon, August 6 for the Transfiguration and August 29 for the Beheading of St John. At Theodoriana the August 15 panigiri runs across two days, with the procession of the icon preceding the dancing. Down on the plain, villages such as Aneza, Kampi, Kommeno and Psathotopi keep the same rhythm on a smaller scale.
The music is distinctly Epirot: the klarino (Greek clarinet) leads, with violin, laouto and defi behind it. The circle opens with tsamiko and syrta and grows heavier as the night goes on, moving into the slow Epirot tunes danced low, with the gaze held to the ground. There is no ticket and no stage: you take a table, order pites, local cheeses, kokoretsi or lamb on the spit, drink tsipouro and barrel wine, and join the circle whenever you choose. August is the month the villages refill - those who left for Athens or abroad come back for their own village's feast, and some settlements multiply in population for a single night.
Mainly in the Tzoumerka mountain villages - Pramanta, Melissourgi, Theodoriana, Agnanta, Katarraktis, Athamanio and Vourgareli - and in the plain villages around the city such as Aneza, Kampi and Kommeno. See the current calendar on Mood.
From mid-July to the end of August, around the major feast days: July 17 (Agia Marina), July 20 (Profitis Ilias), July 26 (Agia Paraskevi), July 27 (Agios Panteleimon), August 6 (the Transfiguration), August 15 (the Assumption) and August 29 (the Beheading of St John).
