Antipodes, Australia’s largest Hellenic festival, kicks off this weekend in Melbourne’s traditional Greek heart, Lonsdale St.
After an absence of two years due to the Covid pandemic, the Antipodes Festival will be attended by more than 100,000 people, Greeks and non-Greeks. The panegyric revelry heralds a fresh beginning washing away the pandemic blues. Jorge Menidis the festival’s director said the Greek Community of Melbourne “is back to running events.”
“We are keen to see Antipodes up again after two years, and it has an incredibly busy few weeks with the Greek Film Festival, an upcoming the book fair and a medical conference” he told Neos Kosmos.
The Antipodes Festival will go back to its normal slot in 2023 of February 25 and 26.
Popular singer Nikos Vertis from Greece is the main act and he takes to the main stage on Saturday to perform his greatest hits including Thelo Na Me Nioseis, De Me Skeftesai, Ena Psema, An Eisai Ena Asteri, and more.
Menidis says along with Vertis there will be “72 hours of entertainment across three stages.”
“We’ve got amazing Cretan musicians on Saturday night and we have the Karagiozi performances, one of my favourites, we even build a dedicated little stage for the kids area, which I am excited about to see how today’s children respond to the ancient shadow puppetry and we’ve got all the dance groups.”
One of the reasons the festival is on October is the “stakeholders” said Menidis.
Karagiozi performances have been scripted by people from the Greek Community’s education programme.
“And they will be performed by none other than Dean Kalimniou” the Neos Kosmos contributor, public intellectual and popular raconteur.
“Stakeholders in this festival, are not only the staff and the Board of the Greek Community, but the whole Greek community, we are there for them and the performers, the music, and dance groups, the 80 plus stallholders, the precinct’s businesses, the contractors … there’s an incredible number of moving parts.”
For Menidis coordinating the festival is like “driving a massive container ship, you can’t turn on a twenty-cent coin, you have a direction and, way down on the horizon and you nudge the ship into that direction.”
The festival director said that the festival is particularly “important to dance groups who have been ravaged by Covid.”
“I got a real insight into how fragile some of these dance groups are which I considered to be incredibly important in the whole cultural ecology, especially in the Greek cultural maintenance in this country, and getting them back up on stages is very significant.”
Menidis is no slouch when it comes to events and their economic impact on Melbourne.
“The University of Melbourne studied the festival two years ago and found that it brings a $7.6 million worth of direct benefits of Melbourne’s CBD, and that’s not to be laughed at.”
“This is the City of Melbourne’s biggest street closure and the biggest street party in city, and it’s all Greek.”
When & where: Antipodes is on 22 and 23 October on Lonsdale St, Melbourne
A range of events this month to make October a Greek month
Kalamata Place to be launched by the Mayor of Kalamata
The Pammessinian Brotherhood of Melbourne ‘Papaflessas’ is hosting a celebration on Saturday 22 for Melbourne’s new Greek landmark: Kalamata Place.
The laneway in Thornbury was recently named after the Greek city with Darebin Council’s unanimous approval.
Kalamata Place’s official opening will take place with an overseas guest of honour, Athanasios Vasilopoulos, the Mayor of Kalamata joining in person.
The Mayor of Darebin Cr Lina Messina, whose support for the naming has been acknowledged, will also be present for the special occasion.
A dedication ceremony, music performances and traditional Messinian food will be among the highlights of the celebratory grand launch.
Free: Saturday 22 1pm at 2 Gooch Street Thornbury
The 195th anniversary of the Battle of Navarino
As part of the bicentenary of the Greek War of Independence, the Australian Hellenic Memorial Foundation with the support of the Pammessinian Brotherhoood – Papaflessas and the Society of Kalamata “23 March” will gather to honour the Battle of Navarino.
The event will be at the Australian Hellenic Memorial on Saturday, October 22 and will be attended by Greece’s Deputy Minister of National Defence, Nikolaos Hardalias and the Mayor of Kalamata, Thanasis Vassilopoulos. Patrons Archbishop Makarios of Australia; Emmanuel Kakavelakis, Consul General of Greece; Dr Robert Webster, OAM, Victorian RSL State President; John Pandazopoulos, Murray Thompson, OAM and Pantelis Kalimnakis, OAM will also be present.
The commemoration marks the 195th Anniversary of the Battle of Navarino which occurred on 20 October in 1827 and was the decisive naval engagement that led to the end of the Greek War of Independence against Turkey.
Free: Saturday 22 10.00am at Australian Hellenic Memorial, Domain Gardens, Cnr Birdwood Avenue & Government House Drive, Melbourne
The launch of the 68th issue of Antipodes Periodical
The Greek-Australian Cultural League of Melbourne will launch the 68th issue of its annual, bilingual periodical Antipodes on Sunday, 23 October.
The 2022 theme of the magazine is dedicated to the 100 years since the Asia Minor Catastrophe, and to honouring all those whose lives and livelihoods were affected.
The programme includes an ensemble playing songs from Smyrna, audio visual presentations, an art exhibition, Asia Minor food, a display of costumes from Asia Minor- all entirely devoted to the memory of the trials and tribulations of the 1922 Catastrophe victims and survivors.
Free: Sunday 23 at the Panarcadian Association of Melbourne & Victoria 570 Victoria St. North Melbourne
