The annual Yarraville Festival, a historic event which was first held in the Melbourne suburb in 1981, was celebrated over the weekend on Sunday, March 5.
The festival brings over 30,000 people together to celebrate and embrace cultural diversity through artistic displays, artisan stalls and gourmet food experiences.
For the past two years, the Yarraville Festival has incorporated a special ‘Greek precinct’ to bring a taste of Greece to the event.
In this year’s precinct, there was a Sun Theatre, a stall for the local St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, and food by Eleni’s Kitchen and Bar, Andrew’s Butcher and Alpha Bakehouse.
People could also enjoy dancing performances, smash some plates, browse stalls with Greek products, and speak with Greek Australian writers about their published books.
Well-known historian and author, Jim Claven, set up shop at the stall of The Papaflessas Social Club to hand out signed copies of his book, Grecian Adventure: Greece 1941, Anzac Trail Stories and Photographs. Mr Claven spoke with many history enthusiasts on the day about the Hellenic ANZAC story.
This year, the festival also partnered with the Greek Youth Generator (GYG) to showcase Greek films by Aliki Vougiouklaki from the 1960s at the iconic Sun Theatre. The films shown were The daughter of the Sun and The lady and the Tramp.
Speaking to The Greek Herald, Con Frescos, who is Treasurer on the Committee of the Yarraville Festival, said “the day was fantastic.”
“It was a very multicultural day with a Greek flavour,” Mr Frescos concluded.
