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frikes panighiri festival ithaca greek island summer street party 2007 ithaki
 
Frikes Panighiri
Saturday 30th June 2007
 
The band was good, but didn't have the flow or kefi for a Panighiri. Fast song that got people dancing, slow song that had them sitting down again. There's an art to playing a Panighiri, if the band doesn't cut it, the party fizzles before its ended.
Summer on Ithaca 2007
Ex-pats and visitors to the island seemed to dominate the dance floor. They had traveled too many miles to sit the night out in the back stalls. They had Kefi and enthusiasm, and the minute the beat moved on, so did they. Second generation parents sharing their culture with their 3rd and 4th generation children and grandchildren.
 
The Frikes Panighiri is the festival known to nearly happen, and again this year, it nearly happened. There were spurts of great fun that approached climax but then dissipated quickly, like a sneeze that doesn't reach its final expulsion.
 
This year was a good year for the restaurants, but only those around the Panighiri circle. The others on the edge, looked on wistfully in hope.
Frikes, the drive-through Panighiri
 
The Frikes Panighiri kicks off the Summer Festivals on Ithaca
frikes
ithaca
 
Those who wanted to have a good time, did.
 
 
 
 
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Across on the mainland the skies were igniting with lightning, giving those perched on the bayside, front row seats to the natural fire-works, but on Ithaca the night remained mild and clear, not too hot, not too cold.
 
 
Dance
 
 
Dance
 
The band played until around 3.30am and once they packed up, so did most of Frikes. People disappeared pretty quickly, leaving only the Fiorendino Bar pumping out its blend of 80s Aussie Rock and a little Dff Dff Dff. Restaurants cleared their tables, packed up their kitchens and salvaged cutlery and crockery, usually dispersed across other establishments. Had the band kept playing, the late-comers would have kept partying, but as it happened, nearly everyone who never usually lasts to the end of a Panighiri, was able to see this Panighiri be put to bed.
 
Time to go home
 
 
As the last Panighiri goers drove away from Frikes, there was only the rubbish run left to do before most of the lights went out.
 
 
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