The rainy weather didn’t dampen the spirits of locals in the Sydney suburb of Burwood on Sunday, November 14 as they flocked to the annual Greek Street Fair for some Hellenic culture, food, dancing and music.
The Greek Street Fair is organised by The Greek Orthodox Parish and Community of Burwood and District to celebrate and share the Greek cultural heritage and spirit with the local community.
At this year’s event, plenty of young children and families were mingling along Burleigh Street and the adjoining carpark enjoying Greek souvlakia and loukoumades.
People could also be seen with huge smiles on their faces as they browsed a number of Greek stalls and bought a variety of products such as homemade jewellery, clothing and candles.
One festival attendee, Berry, told The Greek Herald on the day she decided to come down to the Greek Street Fair after her 4-year-old daughter heard Greek music and wanted to check it out.
“This is the first time we’ve come to this festival because we’ve just come from Hong Kong for two months only and we wanted to explore more because we know Australia has different kinds of culture,” Berry said.
“We’ve enjoyed it so much. We’ve had some Greek food and even visited St Nectarios church.”
When The Greek Herald spoke with Berry about her time at the Greek Street Fair, she was sitting with her daughter in front of the main stage.
Hundreds of attendees flocked to the stage throughout the day to listen to a number of official speeches from VIPs guests such as the Mayor of Burwood, Councillor John Faker; NSW Minister for Multiculturalism, Mark Coure MP; St Nectarios parish priest, Father George Liangas; and Member for Reid, Sally Sitou. Also present was the President of the St Nectarios Parish and Community, Penelopy Kioussis, and Secretary of the Parish Board Christina Efthymiades AM.
Emcees, Kathryn Efthymiades and Dimitrios Kametopoulos, introduced the Mayor of Burwood to speak first and he promised the Greek Street Fair would become even bigger and better next year.
“We want to work with St Nectarios and the committee to make this festival, not a fair but a festival, the major premier Greek festival in Sydney – right here in Burwood,” Cr Faker said.
Minister Coure spoke next and congratulated the St Nectarios parish and board for organising the Greek Street Fair and “showing off all things Greek.”
Father George thanked everyone for attending the Greek Street Fair and stressed the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make the event possible.
“For today to happen a lot of work has gone into it… and they [the St Nectarios board and volunteers] do it out of love and community and wanting to give back,” Father George said.
Minister Sitou was last to speak and said she was very excited to be at the Greek Street Fair and witness the “Greek airplane dance” (the zeibekiko) in action.
She definitely wasn’t disappointed as throughout the remainder of the day a number of Greek dancing groups, including The Nassibian Dancers, Pontoxeniteas Sydney, the Cyprus Community of NSW dancers and Sydney Sizmos, all put on spectacular performances that had people up and dancing.
Tassos Bouzouki also played live music on the day. It was a great event enjoyed by all.
*All photos copyright The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
