The 5th Annual Naxos Potato Festival kicks off at 9 p.m. on August 2. The event is organized by the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Naxos and takes place at the historic potato-producing area of Agios Arsenios in Agia Anna.

The festival is held at the height of the tourism season in order to honor the region’s most popular food – the humble potato. Apparently, the festival has many fans as there has been a 10% increase in the attendance to the event each year. Roughly 2,500 to 3,000 people are expected to attend the music and culinary festivities when they begin on Saturday.

“The Naxos potato serves as an ambassador of Naxos,” according to the president of the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Naxos, Dimitris Kapounis. “It is a certified product (PDO, PGI) produced and standardized on Naxos. The aromatic quality of the Naxos potato makes it ideal for a variety of dishes.”

Naxos is well-known for the quality and taste of its potatoes, which are cultivated especially in the valley of Livadi. The quantities produced in Glinado and the other villages in the valley are such that permit their export to other parts of Greece.

Cultivation of the vegetable began in 1953 with the founding of the Seed Potato Center, which made Livadi the officially designated area for the production of seedlings that would be distributed to other areas of Greece. The initiative proved such a success that the potato developed into a monoculture in the area and afforded considerable income benefits to the local population.

The first potato to Greece

While the potatoes of Naxos have a long history, legend has it that the first potato was bought to Greece by the first Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias who hoped that potato cultivation could increase the living standards of the population. The story goes that although Kapodistrias ordered that potatoes be handed out to anyone interested, the population was reluctant at first to take advantage of the offer. The legend continues, that he then ordered that the whole shipment of potatoes be unloaded on public display on the docks of Nafplion, and placed it under guard to make the people believe that they were valuable. Soon, people would gather to look at the guarded potatoes and some started to steal them. The guards had been ordered in advance to turn a blind eye to such behaviour, and soon the potatoes had all been “stolen” and Kapodistrias’ plan to introduce them to Greece had succeeded.