Last weekend I visited a festival on the Greek island of Aegina called the "Fistiki Fest". For those that don't speak Greek "fistiki" is Greek for pistachio. I love going to festivals, and I particularly love festivals based on foods. The best kind of food festivals to go to tend to be based on ethnic foods (like a Greek food festival, or a Chinese food festival) or food festivals based on a particular harvest, like this one. I was really looking forward to this festival because it was celebrating the harvest of my favourite nut, and I wasn't disappointed at all.
Festivals can really be hit or miss in my opinion. I've been to festivals where they're supposed to be celebrating one thing, but most of the vendors and entertainment have nothing to do with the namesake of the festival. Who wants to go to a rib festival and buy potpourri, or cat T-shirts? I've also been to some festivals where they don't work with the environment around them. Local festivals are the best when they include the locals and local business. This festival really celebrated the pistachio, and it also celebrated the community where pistachios grow.
The first thing this festival got right was the premise, pistachios. It's a simple premise, the nuts are harvested at this time of year, and now is the time to try them as fresh as possible. There's no side ideas or extra events in the Fistiki Fest, just pistachios. Since the community is such a big producer of these nuts there are plenty of people in the area that can cook with them, and show them off. It's also nice to know exactly what you're in for; Fistiki (Pistachio) Fest is pretty clear what they're celebrating.
When walking along the main festival street you're hit with one particular theme during this festival, pistachios. While there were a few non-pistachio businesses on the route, I would have to say that at lest three quarters of the booths at this festival sold pistachios or pistachios related products. The great thing about pistachios is that they're a very versatile nut that you can use in liquors, baking, soaps, and even just on their own. Fortunately the people of Aegina (particularly those that set up this festival) know the versatilities of this nut, and know that a festival is a great place to show it off. If you had dropped me off at this festival and not told me what the main theme was, I could have easily figured it out.
As I've said above, the fact that this festival was celebrating a local crop, that many of the local people depend on for a living, makes it a better festival. You can see the pride that everybody in the town has over their crop, and they really love the idea of showing it off. Since it's a small town the festival is not that big, but since it's so tied into the local people, you can find pistachios throughout the town, and it becomes an extension of the festival itself. If you walk about 30 minutes towards the outskirts of town you'll even come across many pistachio farms (freshly harvested). Even many of the restaurants use pistachios in their cooking, so off the beaten path you can celebrate this awesome nut.
This was by no means the biggest festival I've ever been to, but it was one of the best. Unless you really hate pistachios I highly recommend you stop by Aegina around the middle of September. You'll not only come to a fun festival with all kinds of great ways to sample pistachios (I tried complete raw/fresh pistachios for the first time), but you'll also see a community that is proud of their harvest. Everyone we met was very friendly, and the desserts where spectacular.
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