Tucson Greek Festival

The 38th annual Tucson Greek Festival kicked off on the 25th of this month and is lasting the entire weekend. As someone who has an Armenian background, which has many similarities to Greek culture, it was a must-go event because of the food, the culture…

I went for the food. Let’s be honest here.

The festival was held by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, a small and beautiful church that unfortunately was damaged by a fire last year. The members of the church worked hard to set-up this event, which was wildly popular with Tucson locals. When walking in, visitors are immediately greeted by Greek music and Tavernas selling food and beverages, to include greek beer, wine and ouzo. I opted for Mythos Greek beer, grilled calamari, and a simple Greek salad.

The church still had a lot of damage from the fire in May of 2013. An article about the fire can be read here, and the church is still under a lot of reconstruction. Several art pieces and religious material were held intact but the interior was badly burnt and a donation table was available to help with the reconstruction.

The festival had scheduled lectures by professors from University of Arizona on Greek culture as well as traditional Greek dancing in the back patio. Children were given the opportunity to learn to dance and it reminded me of the many weddings and events I attended as a kid. There was even more food, to include dolma, rice and/or meat wrapped in grape leaves, and saganaki, a cheese dipped in batter and pan-fried with lemon juice and brandy coupled with pita bread, and of course gyros.

I made a bee line to the pastries. My grandmother used to make baklava, i.e. the best dessert in the world, and kataifi and I have yet to have either as good as the ones she made. Regardless, I left with containers of both to include a container of freshly fried loukoumades, fried dough soaked in honey .

Hopefully I’ll be in town next year for the festivities.