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The Big Potato in Xylophagou has been decorated for Easter and the village’s community leader has vowed that a competition will decide the theme for the controversial monument for the next holiday period.
“The Big Potato has been a huge hit in terms of visitors for us,” Xylophagou’s leader George Tasou said. “People from all over the island come to see it in from up close every day.”
The cost of the Easter decoration around the potato, a four-metres high egg and a neon sign reading “Happy Easter” cost around €8,000, according to Tasou.
“It was my idea,” he said. “We are still figuring out the best ways to showcase our spud in order to attract even more visitors in the months to come.”
Erected last October, the Big Potato was also vandalised around New Year’s Eve, when unknown people chopped it down causing around €5,000 in damages.
The Big Potato has put up its festive decorations to entice more visitors to the area to admire the alternative Christmas tree at the entrance of Xylofagou.
“It is very beautiful, everyone who sees it is excited,” community leader Georgios Tasou told the Cyprus Mail.
A large metal star was placed on top of the Big Potato with colourful fairy lights attached to it and secured on the ground around the construction.
“Last night, when we completed the decorating process, there were a lot of people there,” Tasou said.
The four-metre Big Potato, a replica of the ‘spunta’ spud variety, became a reference point for the community after it went viral last month.
“Since the day we erected [the Big Potato] not a day passes without visitors. There are a lot of people daily,” Tasou said.
He estimated the Big Potato is acting as a distraction for people during the “difficult times of the pandemic”.
The attraction for both local and tourist visitors to take photos with the construction appears to have brought more business to nearby establishments, the community leader said.
“Two restaurant owners in the area told me that their traffic was increased.”
Commenting on the recent vandalism…
When Neil and Heather Tait bought the Big Potato in Robertson in 2014, they did so to save both it and their livelihoods.
A potential rival business wanted to not only open a similar supermarket to theirs next door, but also pull out the iconic structure that sat adjacent to their land and concrete it.
As Joni Mitchell may have said, they wanted to pave the potato and put up a parking lot.
Heather Tait said."We bought the land to save the Potato and save our business, and I think we've done a good job of attracting tourism,"
"There's a degree of sadness [in selling] because the Big Potato is an important icon in Robertson, and we have improved it and the block of land, and it's become quite a tourist attraction."
Comedians The Listies at the Big Potato in Robertson. (Instagram: Thelisties)
The Big Potato…