… This would explain why every year he gets on a float and covered in badges, goes around the city with a pompous style. He has taken the bullet from a young age too. The impact of this shooting is enormous. It wedges in your memory the perception, the experience, the feeling of space, a piece of metal which shapes you for the rest of your lifetime and classifies you to a particular category of people, who mutually recognize themselves without any introductions, by a simple gaze and a nod, indicating complicity.
These people detest the term “carnavalistas”. I’m not a “carnavalista” they protest. “I’m a Patras citizen and I’m plainly and a simply a carnival”. The “-istas” identify other categories. So I am just carnival, and you are my carnival too. I am your confetti and you are mine. I am a part of your memories and the deconstructed pose in your photo album and you are in mine. I am the name of your dreams and you are the name of my life. Many happy returns!
Konstantinos Magnis in Christos Stamatopoulos “2015 Patras Carnival”