The official opening of the Dimitria Festival 2022 was held at Kogarah’s Greek Orthodox Church in southern Sydney on Sunday, October 2.
The festival, which celebrates Macedonian culture, is being organised by the Pan-Macedonian Association of New South Wales.
The official opening was marked by a memorial service and Doxology at the church performed by parish priest, Father Athanasios Giatsios.
Father Athanasios welcomed everyone in attendance and gave a small speech about the importance of Macedonia in Greek history and how inextricably linked this Greek region is to Greece, Europe and the whole world.
After the service, the public was invited to the adjoining Hermes Lounge for a small presentation of the official programme for the Dimitria Festival.
In attendance were a number of prominent members of the Greek community including the newly-elected President of the Pan-Macedonian Association of NSW, Anastasia Karakominakis; the Vice President of the Pan-Macedonian Association of NSW, Peter Papoulidis; the Secretary of the Pan-Macedonian Association of NSW and curator of the program, Costa Dantos; and the President of Pontoxeniteas NSW, Maria Anthony; among many others.
During the presentation, emcee Dimitris Kametopoulos invited a number of people to the stage to give small speeches including Ms Karakominakis and Mr Papoulidis.
During her speech, Ms Karakominakis hailed the return of the Dimitria Festival after a number of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms Karakominakis also presented the eight-page program to the public and urged everyone to distribute it to relatives, friends and even strangers in order to attend the events that have been planned.
Official proceedings were concluded with a dancing performance by the Aristotelian Academy of Traditional Greek Dance under instruction from Dimitri and Stavroula Papapetrou. The young dancers wore traditional costumes from rural Florina.
The program of the Dimitria Festival began in September, with a full list of events available below:
