Eat Greek at the Greek Food Festival

Each time the announcement comes heralding the approach of the Greek Food Festival, memories of past festivals come to mind.

This year's festival is Sept. 25-27.

The idea for a Greek food festival was proposed 26 years ago by Janelle Salon at her first meeting as the newly elected president of the Ladies Philoptochos Society of St. John Greek Orthodox Church. The small church was at 12th and Stewart Streets.

The Greek community was growing and the need was great for a larger facility. The idea of a food festival as a fund-raiser was, she said, just a simple one that had worked for other Greek communities.

The dream was to build a much larger church with room to expand. It would take more money than one festival could possibly raise, but after initial fears from other members that it might be too big an undertaking, everyone embraced the idea.

Then the work began.

Las Vegas was a much smaller city in those days. Hotels were owned by small groups of individuals who lived in Las Vegas. They were part of the community, and they were approachable.

Somehow, this small group of dedicated church members convinced the Stardust Hotel to allow them to take over their kitchen and convention hall for that first festival on March 25, 1972.

What a busy time it was for the energetic group. They made thousands of dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves), baked pan after pan of pastitso (Greek meat and macaroni casserole), marinated more than 400 chickens and bought out the spinach in five supermarkets to make spanakopeta (spinach pie).

Endless numbers of cookies, pastries and loukoumades (Greek doughnuts) were prepared under difficult conditions. The hundreds of doughnuts were made in just one small fryer. Sometimes the demand was so high for the delicious doughnuts that they were being fried as guests waited patiently in a long line. Volunteers worked almost around the clock.

It was, in every sense, a labor of love. Las Vegans loved it.

A few years after the debut event, the festival moved to the Sahara Space Center and the date was changed to Mother's Day.

Eventually, all of those festivals paid off. Thousands attended each year and one day the Greek Food Festival was moved to its permanent home on the grounds of the magnificent new St. John church. The date was changed to one in the fall to celebrate the time of harvest. At long last, the volunteers could celebrate Mother's Day.

Once again this month, the church grounds will be transformed into a Greek festival site complete with live Greek bands performing non-stop -- including The Olympians, from Los Angeles -- Greek folk dancing, shopping bazaars, games for children and glorious Greek food.

More than 15,000 people are expected to participate during the three days.

They come not only for the food, music, dancing and entertainment, but for the wonderful ethnic flavor and congeniality of this time-honored event.

Many years after the first Greek Food Festival, church members are still doing the cooking and baking and setting up -- only now it takes a work force of more than 300 people to sell tickets, serve the food, open hundreds of bottles of wine. Then, when it's all over, they restore the grounds to their pristine state.

Remember to shout "yia sou," the Hellenic version of "good health" when you celebrate Greek tradition and culture at the longest-running food festival in Las Vegas.

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