May 28, 2008
Annual Greek Festival Comes to Richmond Tomorrow
The Greek Festival starts tomorrow (and runs through Sunday) it will feature wine, music, dance, church tours and of course wonderful Greek Food.
Gyros, pastries, loukomades, calamari & shrimp all return this year with theit own stands click here for the layout. And, fear not if you didn’t have a chance to swing by the ATM — Checks, MasterCard, and Visa credit cards are accepted.
Actually, the culinary offerings are so many, that for someone like me, it helps to have a menu with descriptions. Luckily, they’ve provided that too!
Here are the hours:
Thursday May 29 - 11:00 am to 9:30 pm
Friday May 30 - 11:00 am to 10:00 pm
Saturday May 31 - 11:00 am to 10:00 pm
Sunday June 1 - 12:00 am to 7:00 pm
Questions: 358-5996
In addition to the food, they’ve got plenty else going on. Here’s a bit from the website:
During the Greek Festival, tours of the sanctuary will be given on the half hour. Guides will provide special lecture tours about the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which traces its origin to the day of Pentecost.
Thursday and Friday: 2 p.m.-7 p.m.
Saturday: Noon - 8 p.m.
Sunday: Noon - 5 p.m.Shopping at the Agora:
At each Greek Festival, there is a wide selection of vendors that come to set up a market, or “Agora”. Greek jewelry, leather, nick-knacks, videos, music, embroideries and rugs, t-shirts and other clothing, folk art, and icons are available for purchase.
Win a Trip to Greece:If you purchase a raffle ticket, you can enter a drawing to win either $1500 OR two round trip tickets (coach class) to Athens, Greece. Tickets are 1 / $2 or 6 / $10. The drawing will be held on Sunday June 1st. You do not have to be present to win. And yes, restrictions apply. Find out more information when you make a purchase
Be forewarned!
Last night my wife and I attempted to attend said “festival” but were turned away because:
1). We were told by a moonlighting Henrico Co deputy that water could not be brought onto the grounds.
2). Fine. I emptied the said filtered water from a polycarbonate water bottle which we have taken with us to other festivals, etc. and was then told we could not take the EMPTY container onto the grounds.
At this point we turned and walked back to our car and left.
Nowhere on the website or at the entrance was any notice that water or any other liquids could be taken into the grounds or for that matter could empty containers be taken into the grounds.
The attitude of “deputy dawg” was enough to convince me that I wouldn’t go back again, ever.
Pety gripe? Perhaps but since there was no indicatioin that beer, Greek or domestic was available and not wishing to drink inferior Greek retsina or similar wine or spend $1.50 for bottled in discardable plastic bottles Deer Park or similar brand bottled water, you might want to reconsider eating inferior Greek food in a less than attractive setting.
FWIW, we have never had this problem in DC or Richmond at numerous ethnic festivals we have attended and enjoyed (and usually spent more than a few dollars for beer and wine) as well as enjoying some really well prepared food.