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What the Potamia carnival is

The carnival of a village on Thassos, run by the villagers themselves — not by a council, not by a company.

Every winter the village's groups build floats and write satirical sketches — about current affairs and politics, about local Thassos affairs, sometimes about history or the twelve gods — and take to the square on the last Sunday of carnival. It is organised by the «Dionysos» cultural association. It is not staged for tourists: it is a village making fun of itself — but anyone who turns up is in it.

The custom is far older than the parade. There is no precise historical record, only stories handed down from our grandparents' great-grandparents — the «camel» custom, which we recently revived, and the men who went out at night dressed as animals and walked into the cafés. It is Dionysian, which is why the association took the name «Dionysos»: we celebrate wine, dance, revelry, eros and the phallic symbols that go with them. Some may find that shocking — for these days of the year there is no shame in it.

The float parade in its present form began in 1987. The association digitises and catalogues whatever survives — parades, floats, songs, photographs — and the archive is still growing. 25 of the 36 years have a video of the parade; the rest do not, and we say so openly.

Preparation starts just after Christmas and runs two to three months: the association's members and dozens of village volunteers build the floats. The events open with Triodion, and the parade falls in February or March depending on the year. Afterwards the square becomes a party, with wine and food for everyone. All of it is volunteer work, backed by every business in the village.

Where

Potamia, Thassos

The parade

14 March 2027

Who

«Dionysos» Cultural Association

Parade since

1987

Digital archive

Ongoing

“The Potamia Carnival is the carnival of the village of Potamia on Thassos: a Dionysian custom many generations old, whose satirical float parade has taken its present form since 1987, organised by the «Dionysos» Folklore and Cultural Association through the volunteer work of its residents.”

This sentence may be used verbatim in an article, press release or video description without asking us.

Two voices, one identity

Our identity has two voices. The “DIONYSOS” association speaks all year round: calm, clear, on white. The carnival speaks for one celebration: loud, nocturnal, on purple. The two voices never mix. Before you design anything, decide who is speaking.

How the carnival talks

Four rules that are often forgotten.

The carnival is «Καρναβάλι Ποταμιάς» and the association is «Διόνυσος». They are two different things, and only the second one organises anything.

The logos

The association signs everything that lasts; the 2027 carnival signs the celebration. Choose below which logo you need. Every file can be downloaded further down.

The 2027 logo

Anything about this year’s carnival: posters, posts, tickets, t-shirts, the celebration's pages. Redrawn every year.

ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΣ

The association itself — letters, notices, the AGM, sponsor decks, anything that outlives one carnival.

Καρναβάλι Ποταμιάς

The carnival in general, with no year attached. Archive pages, the top of the website, permanent signs.

One signature per surface. If it is about the association, ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΣ signs it; if it is about the 2027 carnival, 2027 does. They appear together only when the association publishes something about the 2027 carnival — and then in separate zones, never side by side.

The versions of the 2027 logo

For this year's logo there are only the versions its designer supplied. Download it from the files below, and write to us if you need another format.

Next to other logos

In a sponsor row the logos have different shapes, so equal height does not mean equal size. Match them by eye, not by the ruler.

• Match the logos by the space they take up, not by height. A wide logo next to a square badge at the same height looks twice as large.
• The clear space applies in full — ¼ of the height — measured from our logo, not from the row's slots.
• One version for the whole row. If anyone supplied a single-colour logo, the whole row is single-colour.
• Never joined to another mark: no shared box, no “X × Carnival” combination.
• Association or year, not both. One signature per surface.

Sponsor row — all look the same size, in one colour.

ΧΟΡΗΓΟΣΔΗΜΟΣ

How to credit us

Three phrases that cover nearly every case. Copy them as they are.

The logos may be used freely to report on or cover the carnival. Commercial use — a product for sale, a sponsored campaign, packaging — needs the association's permission. Ask us; the answer is usually yes.

Do and don't

The six mistakes that happen again and again. They apply to every logo.

Χορηγός

How a page is put together

Eight rules for every screen on the site and every poster. If a page breaks one, the page changes, not the rule.

1. The photograph is the ground.The carnival shows first: a photograph or a still from the film fills the first screen, rather than sitting small inside a card.
2. Three type sizes per screen.One big title, the text, and one small line for the details. A fourth size means the screen is saying two things.
3. Red is the action, lime is the fact.Red for the one button and the date box; the year's colour for the one loud fact. Everything else is ink, white, ash and purple.
4. One surface per voice.Deep purple is the carnival's voice, the light ground is for information. They do not alternate band by band on one page.
5. Text is not carded.Things you tap get a card — a film, a year, an event. A paragraph sits on the page.
6. Nothing moves unless the content moves.The film moves, and the countdown in the last days. No scroll effects, no bouncing cards.
7. Playfulness has three places.The mask as a watermark, the year's colour, and one drawing of the mascot. No novelty typeface, no stickers in every corner.
8. The first screen is what the page is for.On the home page, when it is; on a film's page, the film; on the raffle, the field for the number. Everything else below.

The association mask: solid or outline

The ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΣ mask is drawn two ways, and which one to use is decided by the background — not by taste.

Clear space

Around every logo there is a zone that stays empty: ¼ of the logo's height, on every side.

The same rule for every logo, the association's and the carnival's. The zone grows with the logo, so nobody needs a table. Nothing goes inside it: not text, not a line, not the busy edge of a photograph, not another logo, not the edge of the page. When the logo sits on a colour plaque, the plaque's edge is the limit.

Downloads

Every file, shown on the background it was made for. They are always the current ones.

All are SVG files. They open in Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma, Canva and Word, scale from a keyring to a banner without losing quality, and have no background of their own — the chequerboard in the preview means transparency. If you need PNG or EPS, write to us; don't enlarge a screenshot.

Free for any use that concerns or covers the carnival. For commercial use, ask the association first.

Practical notes, before you start

The usual mistakes in an article or a press release.

• Two names, not one

  «Καρναβάλι Ποταμιάς» is the celebration; the «Dionysos» Cultural Association organises it. Do not write “Thassos Carnival” — there are others.

• The year is the parade's

  Triodion opens in one year and the parade happens in the next. Each carnival takes the year of its parade — that is what the village calls it.

• It is volunteer-run

  There is no paid production. Describing it as “a council event” or “a festival” describes something else.

• The logo on white or purple

  On a black-and-white page use the single-colour version (mono). Do not put the full-colour one over a photograph — it has no outline and it disappears.

• Photographs, with a credit

  Our archive is available to you. Ask for it and caption it “Potamia Carnival Archive”.

• Every year's film

  Every parade that survived on video is public — not all of them did. If you need footage at television quality, write to us.

• The content is spicy

  The floats carry swearing, phallic props and plenty of sex — this is a Dionysian festival and the obscenity is the tool of the satire, not an accident. If you are cutting footage for a news bulletin or for a post, watch it first. At the parade the presenter warns that it is about to get spicy after the Dionysos float; the same point is marked on the videos on this website.

Something not covered here?

If what you are making does not fit any of the above, or you need a file in another format, write to us. We answer, and we send what is needed.