Xylofagou promises ‘Big Potato’ mash up

The Famagusta village of Xylofagou promises to deliver more than just another event in September, as locals gear up for the ‘Big Potato International Festival’ with big surprises.

The community’s “grand event” takes place September 7-8, with local authorities promising a Guinness World Record without elaborating.

Could the four-metre-tall ‘Big Potato’, erected in 2021, get any bigger?

Or is the community council aiming for another record, such as the biggest dish of a potato recipe?

In 2022, the community said the village would attempt to enter the Guinness Book of Records by frying the largest portion of chips in the world.

Xylofagou’s festival promises several surprises, including concerts by big names from the Greek and Cypriot musical scene.

The local community has been trying to get traction over their local produce, the spunta (seed potato) variety, with their latest endeavour being a ‘giant’ potato replica erected at the village entrance.

In October 2021, the village erected the Big Potato, a four-metre-tall replica of the spunta, a long-shaped spud, sparking mixed reactions.

Residents were up in arms after the village’s homage went viral on social media, attracting unflattering comments about the odd-looking eyesore.

The council received dozens of complaints from angry residents, demanding the statue be removed for defaming the village.

Most critics say the four-metre-tall object looks nothing like a potato but a giant sex toy or worse.

Xylofagou community leader George Tasou, a former DISY MP, defended the potato sculpture, noting it pays tribute to the main product of the area’s ‘red soil’ villages.

Sure enough, the potato monument has attracted scores of curious sightseers who visited to take photographs at the new landmark.

It wasn’t long, however, until others sought to make their mark on the Big Potato, with football hooligans vandalising the sculpture just weeks after it was first erected.

The village offered a reward of €500 for their capture, but the vandals were never brought to justice.