Last weekend’s cooler temperatures didn’t prevent thousands of people from attending the sixth annual Roanoke Greek Festival, hosted by Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church at 30 Huntington Boulevard, N. E. Spokesman Paul Dallas says the first year they had 9000 people. The popularity of the event prompted them to expand to a 3-day festival, allowing more people to enjoy the Greek food and festivities.
“Last year, we had between 22,000 and 25,000 folks. We ran out of food on Sunday so this year we cooked about 10 to 15 percent more food.” They expected about the same number of attendees this year.
Church members plan for the event the entire year. “It’s a year long process, between our sponsors who have been very gracious to us, the supporters, trying to get those lined up … and also the advertising, where everything goes, and so forth.”
Dallas says they start preparing the food in August. “We’ll get together for a couple days and make all the pastichio, make all the moussaka. We get together for two days and make 10,000 souvlaki. We get together for a couple of days and make 140 pans of baklava.”
The Monday and Tuesday before the event, volunteers made 10,000 souvlaki (shish kabobs). “We go through literally a ton of this meat, a ton of that meat. There’s just a lot of food here.”
There are ten people on the executive committee but the entire church, about 500 people, turns out to help in some manner with the festival.
Each year the committee chooses several charities to support, but they’ve donated money to Center in the Square and the Rescue Mission each year.
This year festival organizers decided to try something new. Volunteers made 500 traditional Greek meals of souvlaki, beans, and rice to feed those staying at the Roanoke Rescue Mission. Rescue Mission personnel got the food and served it to the needy. “If there’s any food left over, we usually give it to the Rescue Mission anyway,” says Dallas.
Brittany Wright is a Development Assistant with the Rescue Mission and is grateful for the support. “They (festival organizers) want everyone in the Roanoke Valley to experience the Greek culture. And, unfortunately, there are some people that just don’t have the means to do that. So they thought it would be awesome to share a traditional Greek meal with the guests at the Mission for dinner. It’s going to be a fresh meal prepared just for them.”
“I think they’re just going to be excited and touched that people doing such a big event took the time to think about them and their needs, specifically—that they weren’t forgotten.”
“Having a specific culture support what we do is really wonderful because the Rescue Mission is open to all cultures, faiths, ethnicities, ages, genders. And this is just an example of how different cultures can come and support something like the Rescue Mission.”
Michael from Roanoke ate a gyro as his wife and two daughters looked on. This was their first time at the Greek Festival.
“I’m eating it because when I was in the Navy, we went to Greece and I ate many of them.”
He said this gyro was “pretty good,” adding “the atmosphere is a little different. Over there, there was an open market, similar to this, they’d literally cut it right off (the spit) with the juices flowing into the pita bread … I don’t know what all they put on it but it was good.”
The kids did some sand art, just one of the family activities at the festival. There were balloon makers, face painters, and a bean bag toss.
In addition to the food and games, traditional Greek bands and dancers were on hand, showcasing even more of the Greek culture and making for a festive atmosphere throughout the weekend.
Maybe the best food event in SW Va. OOOMPAH!