How much would you pay to see Antonis Remos? Apparently, the answer depends on the location. Tickets to his recent Melbourne show sold at $69, $89, $99 and $110. But in order to see him perform at Nammos, the famously lush seaside restaurant in Mykonos, one should expect to fork out at least €500 ($729). Granted, the price includes a five-course meal (crab salad, prawn tempura, rib-eye steak, dessert), a bottle of champagne and a 1.5lt bottle of Rose Wine. For double the price (i.e. €1000/ $1460), there’s a 3lt. bottle of wine on offer for the 10-party company – because, it has to be noted that these two options are not tailored per person, but per table, accomodating up to ten patrons, so there are parties that will be charged either €500 or €1000, regardless of how many will be actually sitting on the table and sharing the bill. It should also be noted that the entertainment is not limited to the popular Greek singer, as the event, which will take place on Thursday 28 July, features another act billed along; world music perennial favourites Gipsy Kings, whose songs “Bamboleo”, “Djobi Djoba” and their cover of “Volare” were very popular in Greece – in the late 1980s.
Even so, this price is far from seeming even remotely close to what one would think as “value for money”. But this does not preoccupy the patrons of Nammos, who are flocking to see Remos live in what is now an annual event. The concert is tailored to the tastes and habits of a small elite of Greek and international businessmen, celebrities and socialites, notoriously spending as though things are “business as usual” in Greece. Past events were reported as being poor excuses of tasteless extravagance, with drunk patrons engaging in food wars – with thousand dollar worth of lobster as ammunition. If such behaviour is seen as a hubris in a country where 40% of the population lives in poverty and in which one in two young people have no prospect of finding employment, some argue that in a free country and in a free economy, people can spend their money as they please, provided they pay their taxes. But it has been reported that this same elite that glaringly participates in these events, comprises of infamous tax-avoiders and businessmen who have declared bankruptcy, all the while ensuring their personal fortunes in tax havens around the world. And it was Antonis Remos himself who added insult to injury, when in 2014, while performing for the same crowd at the same place, he seized the opportunity to make a speech against the ‘foreign-inflicted austerity’ that has crippled Greece. Who knows what he has to say this time round.