Marin Greek Festival Begins Today

“Oh my goodness!” are words you might hear — or speak yourself — when you taste the homemade foods that will be served at the 4oth Annual Marin Greek Festival over Memorial Day Weekend. 

The festival is staged at the spectacular hilltop complex of the Nativity of Christ Greek Orthodox Church in the Ignacio Hills of Novato. Annually over 6,000 festival-goers come to eat, drink, dance, visit, shop, browse or just relax and have fun both in and ou doors.

The church community in Novato has a group of women who have the skill, knowledge and history to prepare the festival’s foods from traditional recipes.   The food chairs include Amalia Haginicolas from Mytilini and Sophia Stathis from Kalamata. After you treat yourself to ancient delicacies, you can attend a cooking demonstration so that you can make some of these foods at home.

The deli booth chaired by Stassie Sideris, from Kalamata,  will be selling the  church’s cookbook, Greek Cookery Marin (over 10,000 copies sold to date) and  will also carry the ingredients that you will need to make the items that were demonstrated.  The main dining room’s menu will feature the lamb shanks, lamb souvlaki and baked chicken dinners served with pilafi (Greek rice cooked in chicken broth and butter), Greek salad and bread. Dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves) moussaka (sliced eggplant, ground beef, tomatoes and seasonings covered with béchamel sauce), just to mention a few, are also served in the dining room. And of course, you can’t leave without tasting a Gyro (thin slices of barbecued meat with special herbs and spices,  wrapped in pita bread with a special sauce); some very yummy Greek pastries, Greek coffee or a Greek frappe and the Loukoumades (feathery light honey  sweet dough fried to a golden brown and dipped in boiling honey – (a taste delight from ancient Greece where they were given as tokens to winners of the dames at the festivals).

Daily church tours will be given and there will be a vesper service held on Saturday evening.  The monks from the Monastery of  St. John will have items from their bookstore for sale on the upper patio.

The parish is also fortunate to have an award-winning dance group,  the Minoan Dancers, who have traveled to Greece to perform in the ancient theatre of Dora Stratou.  The dance groups, directed by Effie and Vasilis Fourakis of Corte Madera, will perform throughout each day and as in the past, they will teach festival goers how to dance “Greek.”

Kefi Greek band will perform on Friday evening, and Fotia will play for you on Saturday and Sunday.  We are excited to have Costas Haralambopoulas, demonstrating Byzantine chanting each day.  Each year the festival committee chooses a charity partner that will receive 5 percent of the net proceeds of the event.  This year the committee chose the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the North Bay. 

Free parking and continuous shuttle busing, starting a half-hour before festival opening times, will be available from the Indian Valley College parking lot at the west end of Ignacio Boulevard, and San Jose Middle School (Saturday and Sunday only). Disabled parking will be available at the Festival site, 1110 Highland Drive in Novato.  Signs near the Ignacio Boulevard off-ramp of Highway 101 will guide drivers to the easily accessed parking lots.

Admission at the door is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and children 12 and under are free.  For information call 415-883-1998 or visit the website, www.maringreekfestival.com.

Take a look at this lineup for the annual Greek Festival in Novato:

Authentic Homemade Greek Food
Live Greek Music and Dancing
KEFI Greek Band (Friday)
Fotia Greek Band (Sat/Sun) FotiaMusic.com
Performances by Minoan Dancers
Cooking Demonstrations
Children's Activities
Greek Marketplace
Exciting Exhibits and Church Tours

Hours:

Let's do Lunch ~ Greek Style, 11:30am -2 :30pm Friday

Friday Dinner~ Enjoy delectable, authentic Greek delicacies prepared from recipes passed down from generation to generation and enjoyed in the Old World ambiance of our Greek village on the hill. Special a  la carte food and wine-pairing menu, dancing to the music of Kefi Greek Band.

Wine Tasting – 5:30 – 8:30 pm. Featured wines: Keller Estate, Bouchaine, Fog Crest Vineyard, Suacci Carciere, Mahoney Vineyards, Romililly and Fontinos Vineyard. Price: $20 tasting fee to sample the wines.  Purchase advance wine tasting tickets at www.greekfestwinetasting.eventbriete.com.

Free admission to the grounds

FESTIVAL WEEKEND HOURS: Saturday & Sunday: 11:00am-10:00pm

There will be signs along Ignacio Boulevard directing you to the parking area.