Lots to eat at Greek Fest
Expect to hear shouts of “Opa!” — a Greek word used to express joy — from the audience as they show their appreciation of performances at Greek Fest, this weekend and next in front of Saanich Commonwealth Place.
This is the 16th year of the popular event, hosted by the Victoria and Vancouver Island Greek Community Society, which typically sees between 25,000 and 30,000 visitors sampling food and enjoying cultural performances.
The festival features Greek food, desserts and baked goods. Visitors will eat more than 2,000 kilograms of lamb on the spit, up to 5,000 spanakopita (Greek spinach pie) and 15,000 souvlaki (a dish of meat and vegetables on a skewer) over the two-weekend event.
Diners will be entertained by authentic Greek music by members of the Hellenic Centre for Folklore Studies, an 11-member group visiting from Greece.
But it’s not all Greek music, with 25 local musicians and performers from various ethnic backgrounds taking to the stage throughout the day.
New this year are free Greek cooking lessons, where chefs will teach people how to make spanakopita. The 30-to-45-minute classes start at 1 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Partial proceeds from food sales will go towards the Hot Lunch program to provide nutritious meals for needy school children in the Victoria area, in partnership with the Saanich Firefighters
Make sure you take the time for a tour of the Orthodox Christian church, which is festooned with religious inconography. Tour times, with a historian, will be posted at the event.
The Greek Heritage Museum explores the history of contributions by Greeks in British Columbia, including Ioannis Focas, the first Greek to visit the province in 1592. You may know him better as Juan de Fuca, the Spanish translation of his name.
The museum can be found on the west side of the Community Centre. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the festival.
Admission is free and the event runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday until Sunday and Sept. 1 to 4 under tents on the grounds of the Greek Orthodox Church and Community Centre, 4648 Elk Lake Dr., beside Saanich Commonwealth Place.
For information, go to greekfest.ca.