Greeks and friends of Greece are getting ready to eat, drink and be merry as Vancouver gears up to host a special celebration of Greek cuisine and culture.
The Vancouver Greek Food Festival is set to return on Friday, April 20, and continue until Monday, April 23, at the Hellenic Community Centre of Vancouver, British Columbia, situated at 4500 Arbutus Street.
This year marks the festival’s 40th anniversary having first opened its doors to the Greek community as well as the wider public in 1977.
The festival, which is hosted by the Hellenic Community of Vancouver, attracts thousands of people from all over the city’s lower mainland and other parts of the province of British Columbia, as well as from the nearby U.S. state of Washington who come to enjoy the music, the entertainment, the history — and above all, the culinary delights.
The upper hall on the second floor of the community centre operates as the Greek Kafenion (coffee shop/bakery) where one can buy delicious homemade-style Greek sweets such as baklava, loukoumades, galaktompouriko, bougatsa, and many other lip-smacking Greek desserts. Many other traditional Greek foods such as cheese pies, spanakopita, koulourakia, etc., are also available to either take home or eat in.
In addition to the Greek kafenion, there will be a Heritage Room displaying trinkets, photos and other memorabilia from the past from the Vancouver Greek associations and the community in general.
The idea for the food festival originated in 1976 when a local Greek Vancouver man mentioned to his friend that he had just come back from San Francisco where he attended a Greek food event. His friend immediately responded: “Well then why don’t we do something like that here in Vancouver?” and the seed was planted.
The following year that idea became a reality and after a considerable amount of work which included intense planning, organising, city licensing and endless hours of volunteer work from numerous members of the Hellenic Community of Vancouver, the first Greek Food Festival of Vancouver was introduced to the city.
The festival proved to be such a success and popular among people in the city, that it has been an annual event for forty years. In 2016, the festival took place late in the year while 2017 was the only year since 1977 that the festival did not take place.
This year on Saturday, April 21 in addition to the festival, the community will also be holding a ‘Greek Night’, which will start at 10 p.m. and which will feature Vancouver’s very own DJ Dimitri. Friends and family are invited to come enjoy a night filled with Greek music and dancing so as to get a real feel of the Greek party experience!In 2016, in addition to the various local dance groups that performed at the festival, the people who attended were also able to enjoy several performances from the Greek dance group ELKELAM that came from Greece especially.
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Photo Source: greekreporter.com
Source: greekreporter.com
