Saturday, October 24, 2009

THE GREEK FESTIVAL

Xstrata Greek Festival was held in Townsville on 10th and 11th October. It was the 10th anniversary of the Greek festival.

In Greek Festival there were variety of music, cultural dancing and delicious food. The Pioneer Park was filled with the unique sounds of both traditional and modern Greek music.


In Greek festival, there were plenty of competitions, children’s entertainment, rides and fireworks.

Dora the Explorer and her sidekick Boots performed on stage. A popular character with children and adults alike, performed and the children joined the fun and sang along to her familiar songs. Children took their photos with Dora in the park.









Popular Sydney band Aegean Groove, along with popular singer Maria Maroulis filled Riverway with the sounds of Greece. Everybody enjoyed an entertaining mix of traditional and modern music played on the bouzouki and lira.

Dance is a major part of the Greek culture. At Xstrata Greek Festival, there was traditional and modern dance from all regions of Greece and even a great selection of belly dancing. I was thrilled to see the fantastic costumes which were exclusive to each region and the meticulous craftsmanship which made them so unique.








Exquisite costumes and interesting dances kept everybody spellbound. Three groups performed dances from many regions of Greece, including Thrace, Macedonia, the Greek Islands and central Greece.

The traditional Greek dancing with the Hellenic Dancers took place and everybody got their hips gyrating when we tried to do belly dancing with the fantastic Scimitar Moon Belly Dancers.

Master Chef celebrity Geni took us on a culinary journey in the new outdoor Greek Festival IGA Kouzina (kitchen), where she taught the art of fantastic Greek cooking - entrees, mains and desserts. The plate smashing challenge took place and we enjoyed very much.

Other competitions held throughout the festival included Grape Stomping, Olive Spitting Challenge and dancing competitions. There were a huge range of rides for young and old to enjoy like Dodgem Cars, Super Swing, Roller Coaster, Double Bubble, Ferris wheel, Super Slide, Shooting Gallery and Laughing Clowns.


Melville's Animal Farm was brought in the festival and the children enjoyed patting the baby animals. Face Painting was available all day to add some colour to the day. The balloon artist entertained the children with their fun balloon creations.

There were delicious and different types of food like –

• Baby Octopus and chips

• Calamari and chips – Deep fried calamari with lemon and hot chips




• Fish and chips – A single piece of battered fish with hot chips

• Souvlakia – Skewer of Grilled lamb and chicken pieces marinated in oregano, olive oil and lemon • Yiros – A greek wrap made on grilled pita bread with lamb, lettuce, tomato, onion and tsatziki • Soudsoukakia – Spiced mince rissoles in tomato salsa

• Kokinisto Makaronia – Pasta cooked with Greek mince sauce

• Spanakopites – Spinach and cheese triangles with flaky pastry • Eliniko Salata – Lettuce layered with tomato, cucumber, onions, feta cheese, oregano and olives dressed with a Greek vinaigrette

• Greek dips with Pita bread platter • Revithokeftethes - Vegetarian chickpea rissoles • Loukoumathes (honey puffs) – balls of crispy dough smothered in honey, cinnamon and icing sugar

• Baklava – layers spiced almonds and filo pastry covered in honey

• Halva – semolina cake

• Finikia – biscuits made with orange zest and spices drizzled in honey

• Koulourakia – butter biscuits

• Kourambiethes – shortbread covered in icing sugar

It was a fantastic festival and I enjoyed very much for two days. The dance programme and the varietes of food made the Greek festival extra special.

20 comments:

Amit Kumar Singh said...

Beautiful post with beautiful Pics..
It's very interesting to know about foreign culture... :)
Thanks for sharing :)
Cheers!!

शरद कोकास said...

beautiful photos and tour to this festival . I enjoyed this but dishes? oh these are pictures only . certainly you are going to post recepies of these dishes in your next post

Anonymous said...

I am sure, you must have had a blast there.

Unseen India Tours said...

Beautiful post !! Seems it is a wonderful festival !! Fun,Food and enjoyment..Looks you had a wonderful time !! Wish i could be there.

BK Chowla, said...

Though I am reasonably well trevelled,I never knew of the Greek festival.
Thank you for nice pictures and so much info.

SUFFIX said...

Thank you Babli for taking us to the spot, comprehensive narration, lot of pictures, felt like a quick trip!! Keep it up.

Rià said...

wow!!now thats an interesting festival and the food looked dlightful!! "_

R. Ramesh said...

valla..seems u had a gala time..happy 4 u friend..u r a valuable friend for bloggers like us as u always motivate us..keep up the cheers bubli....best wishes

deeps said...

wow
lots of stuff there ... umm
looks like you are just briming with 101 ideas .. :-P

Indrani said...

This was interesting, and such wonderful shots too.

Jeevan said...

Your pictures and words moves into the festival well.

The names and the dishes are very strange, but seems interesting and it’s nice to see aus celebrating such festivals of other countries and tradition is something that keeps people always attractive.

NR said...

Lovely...as always u come up with excellent and informative posts!!! I simply loved it!!
So any chances of u coming up with a television documentary on Discovery or National Geographic...m sure today or tomorrow u will!!

Destiny's child... said...

The menu made my mouth water!
Beautifully described. I am sure you had a lovely time! :)

RAJ SINH said...

REALY 'UNIQUE AND INTERESTING '

GREEK PEOPLE AND FOOD, BOTH ARE UNIQUE !

I AM LUCKY ,ENJOYING SINCE YEARS .

abdul hai said...

Fabulous keep it continue

LR Photography said...

Great post!

Tomz said...

Thanks for your informative post, every culture has its own way of celebrations, cuisines, costumes and art forms. Even in the same continent, phaps the culture may differ from groups to groups. But it is also very interesting to note that, sometimes one culture a a place resembles with other on the opposite end of the globe.

AJEYA RAO said...

Wow...so many vegetarian dishes. lovely. And what is that food with green leaf wraped up? bet it tasted good. :-)

Bhavesh Chhatbar said...

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cyclopseven said...

Interesting.