A festival celebrating crushed green olives? Oh yes! The 53rd edition in fact is coming up in Tseri on Friday bringing a variety of traditional activities and flavours. The Crushed Olives Festival is Tseri’s longest-running cultural event, organised since 1969, and will take over the central square (next to the old church of Saints Andronikos and Athanasia) and fill it with olive products for which the area is renowned.
Besides tasty olives, folk tradition will be the highlight of the festival with music and food on-site as well. As every year, the festival is the result of voluntary work by friends and members of the Anagenisis Tseriou Association.
Passionate about Tseri’s proud produce, organisers explain the significance of this festival and its importance to the community: “Although today Tseri is developing into an urban area, traditionally its residents were involved in agriculture and livestock farming. Our region is now well known for its olive and olive oil production. In fact, Tseri was included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2019 because of its olives. The reason the festival is named Crushed Olives is because this period marks the beginning of the green olive harvest, which is mainly processed as crushed olives.”
As such, visitors are invited to explore and taste Tseri’s olives in a variety of ways as a market with traditional produce will be set up along with food stalls and drinks stations whilst a live Greek music programme unfolds.
53rd Crushed Olives Festival
Traditional festival with food, drink and music. September 13. Tseri Central Square, Nicosia. 8pm. Free entrance. Tel: 99-888887
