Greek Festival a Huge Success

BY KRISTEN SULLIVAN

Last weekend, St. Constantine and Helen West Nyack Church held their annual Greek Festival, and it was again a success, drawing thousands upon thousands of visitors as it has for many years. The festival is held every year outside the church’s property right off exit 7 on the Palisades Parkway and lasts four days during the first full weekend in June.

There were a ton of things to do for kids and adults such as carnival rides, games, vendors selling a multitude of things including jewelry and clothing, and a ton of delicious food tents. The festival even featured a raffle with several prizes, the biggest one being a flat screen TV.

The church members and families ran all of the food and drink stations, some featuring homemade Greek favorites like chicken and pork souvlaki, moussaka and pistachio, cheese and spinach pies, lamb chops, Greek sausage and perhaps most exotically, grilled octopus.

The festival also featured plenty of desserts such as baklava, diples, galaktoboureko, kourambiedes, loukoumades etc. The most popular food tent this year was the Gyro station.

Olivia Konstantinidis of Piermont helped organize the event. She said, “A lot of time and work goes into the festival, not just what people see on the outside. For example, we have to prepare food, make sure we have enough utensils and make sure everything is set up and ready before everyone arrives but it is all worth it.”

At times during the Greek Festival, the youth of the church danced traditional Greek dances taught to them by their Greek schoolteachers. The kids came out in matching outfits and danced in perfect sync with one another, which really brought the Greek culture to life throughout the weekend.

The weather was beautiful and sunny for most of the weekend and the festival had a great turnout of people every day. Attendees enjoyed eating under the food tent and walking around in the sun exploring everything the festival had to offer. It was a great weekend, most everyone agreed.