Attracting thousands of visitors each year, Savannah’s 71st annual Greek Festival will take place on October 6-8, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Hosted by St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church, the same church that has hosted the event every year, originally the festival started as a bake sale at the church.
A combination of what organizers call food, culture, and faith, the event is a celebrated tradition for the church and the community. The annual festival will feature homemade Greek foods, Greek dancing, Greek music, and a marketplace in St. Paul’s Hellenic Center on 14 West Anderson St.
“Out in the courtyard, we’ll have different vendors that will be selling gifts. Then you’ll make your way into the meeting room. In the meeting room, you have a bakaliko, which is a grocery store, where you can buy different ingredients to make your own Greek food. They’ll have a gift shop where you can buy all kinds of stuff. Then we’ll have a pastry booth where you can buy the pastries in bulk,” said Danos. “Then you wind your way into the gym, which becomes a dining hall. You’ll have the option of either a combo, which is kind of like a sampler platter, it’ll have Pastitsio Spanakopita, and Dolmades. Then you’ll also have another line which is the ala carte line where you can go through and just get exactly what you want: a gyro, a salad, or an individual assortment of whatever you want. Then there’ll be some seating, there’ll be some bistro tables. They’ll also be a bar, we will have Greek beer, Greek wine, we’ll also have sodas, water, and American and Greek Coffee.”
Some of the other foods featured include baklava, flogeres, kataifi, melomakarona, diples, kourabiedes, Greek meatballs, lamb plates, and chicken plates among other signature Greek dishes.
“It’s a lot of those different sources. A major part of the food is made right there at the church. We made, I think, 9000 dolmades. And then, most recently, I think we made over 7000 koulourakia, which are small twisted cookies. A lot of it is homemade, not everything is homemade, but most of it is, and you’ll be able to tell what is because they’re not uniform at all because everybody’s making them by hand. Everybody puts their own little twist, so you’ll see that it’s very inconsistent, but it’s all very delicious,” said Danos.
The festival will feature two dance groups. The “Ta Pethia” (which means the children) is a group of younger members that will be dancing in costume, then “Zoe,” (an adult dance troupe). The dance entertainment is featured Thursday and Friday evenings, and all day on Saturday. Greek music will be playing throughout each day, as well.
The Greek community has been very active and involved in the city of Savannah for over a 100 years, and members say they hope to continue that through the Greek festival.
“We have three goals for the Greek Festival. The main thing is to share the faith. We’re Christians, and we want to share that faith. We believe in it. Next, we want to experience fellowship within the community, that’s with members of the church, with friends of the church, and with the public. We want to have that fellowship, especially now when people have been locked up for so long because of the pandemic. The third thing is to make a profit, of course, because we have to sustain the Church and its ministries, then also we give to local charities,” said Danos.
“The key is that it’s a Christian-based faith that’s been around for 2000 years. It’s important for us to share, not only our faith but our culture, the Greek culture, that’s where the food comes in, the dancing comes, and the music. It’s, of course, a big festival, we’re going to have a lot of different things for people to enjoy,” said Tommy Danos, festival chairman.
Throughout the festival, there will also be tours of St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church across the street, where attendees can follow Father John Wallace, who will answer questions, give tours of the inside of the church, talk about its history, and what it means to be an Orthodox Christian.
Admission to the festival will be free Thursday and Friday until 4:00 p.m., but carries a $5.00 donation after 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, Friday & all day Saturday. Children under 12 get in free.
“We will also have online ordering so people can go to savannahgreekfest.com, order online, pick the time to pick it up, pay for it, and we’ll have it ready for you. You’ll go Bull Street to Henry lane, which is behind the Hellenic center, and you just pull up to the door. Give us a name and an invoice number and we will hand it to you out the door. It is a very quick way to get your food so you can still experience it because a lot of people will be working and they might not be able to come in and wait,” said Danos.
For more information, visit savannahgreekfest.com
