Thousands of newly arrived Greeks in Darwin will increase the numbers of revellers that will attend this weekend’s Greek Glenti festival in Darwin.
John Nicolakis, president of the Greek Orthodox Community of Northern Territory said that the addition of Australian tourists from down south will also see the festival get over 40,000 people in attendance.
The festival has already noticed a significant rise in members of the Greek community attending with the dance groups seeing a rise in 200 students taking it on.
“There are two extra dancing groups this year,” confirmed Mr Nicolakis saying that this is an impact of the rise in migration to the Northern Territory for Greeks escaping the crisis.
“We have already had over 1000 people here who arrive in the last 6-12 months. and there’s probably another 500 getting ready to come providing they get the 457 visa.
“Hopefully we will get the holiday visa approved in Australia and by the government in Greece, then I would say there will be a lot more people coming,” said Mr Nicolakis about the influx of Greece choosing to call Darwin home.
Now in it’s 24th year, the festival will feature favourites such as the Greek School ladies’ loukoumathes, dolmathes and pites; yiros and souvlakia, sheftalies from the Cyprus community and, due to the cold weather expected this weekend, a large helping of patsa.
The Glenti festival will be held over Saturday and Sunday with the festival-goers given the Queens’ birthday public holiday on the Monday to recover. In total, the festival cost $300,000 to put on, with monies received from the Northern Territory government, donations from the community and the cost of the stalls at $3000 each. Mr Nicolakis said any money made from the festival will go to paying the remainder of the bills.
The Greek Glenti festival will be held at Bicentennial Park in Darwin on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 June at midday.