The Yarraville Festival is back with a bang if last weekend’s effort is anything to go by. As the sun shone, thousands from across Melbourne’s inner west and beyond made their way to the premier festival in Melbourne’s west. And this lovely local Festival had a distinctive Hellenic flavor thanks to the efforts of local Hellenes and their supporters.
The Festival took place around the hub of Yarraville’s iconic art deco Sun Cinema. As the former home to Greek cinema in the 1960s and beyond, the cinema once again became home to all things Greek with special film screenings organized by Dean Kotsianis, a member of the Melbourne Greek Community Board, and his young friends at the Greek Youth Generator organization, supported by Melbourne’s Pammessinian Brotherhood ‘O Papaflessas’ and the Yarraville Festival. The screening included the classic Daughters of the Sun starring Aliki Vougouklaki, with a pre-recorded introduction from former Sun owner and film importer Peter Yiannoudes. The showing of these Greek cinema classics brought back many memories, including for Vicki Kyritsis who was reminded of when she was taken by her parents to meet the star of the film during her visit to Melbourne back in the day.
Dean and the GYG youth crowd took the opportunity to promote their latest project, a community mural initiative, entitled Footscray’s Hidden Hellenism. This large mural will feature some of Footscray’s iconic Greek stories and personalities. They took the opportunity at Yarraville to promote their project to local MP’s Katie Hall and Dr Daniel Mulino. They are seeking financial support to make this great community project a reality. You can learn more about the mural project by viewing their Youtube video ‘Footscray’s Hidden Hellenism’ online. Any readers wanting more information on Footscray’s Hidden Hellenism or who would like to make a donation can contact Dean at hello@gyg.org.au.
The hub of Yarraville’s Greek community remains Agios Nikolaos Church and its participation in the Festival was shown by the beautiful smell of loukoumades as they were prepared and cooked on the Church forecourt. Also on offer was calamari – a perfect combo for Lent. These blended with the smell of lamb on the spit, as Yarraville’s famous Eleni’s Kitchen, offered their wares to the throng. There can be no Greek festival without souvlakia, calamari and loukoumades!
But you can’t have Greek food without Greek music and Yarraville provided some of the best. Opposite Eleni’s Kitchen came the sound of the Pontian lyra and the unmistakable lyrics of their unforgettable songs. It wasn’t long before the air resounded to the noise of smashing plates, as the real dancing got going. By the end of the day, the fervent dancing – as only Greek women can do – had reduced the remains of the plates to dust! Bravo! A big thank you to Stylianos and all at Eleni for all their efforts on the day.
At the other end of the street I could hear the unmistakable sounds of Joseph Tsombanopoulos and his Greek bagpipes. As a Scot, there is nothing like the skirl of the pipes to get me up and following the tunes. It was great to see Joseph and his new band – the Heirs of Apollo – perform their amazing blend of contemporary and traditional Greek folk music. I saw them a few weeks ago at a Balkan Music festival in Northcote and they blew my mind. The crowd was jumping – as they were in Yarraville.
Their musical creation reminds of a fusion blend of traditional Scots-Irish folk music and electric instruments, often referred to as Keltic Elektric. I heard it once at the Orkney Folk Festival and was hooked. I really believe that Joseph and his band are on to something important and potentially influential. I love traditional folk renditions but there is also room in the music scene for this sort of re-imagining of traditional music. And it has the potential to draw in younger crowds who hopefully might then look back to the origins of this new style. Congratulations to Joseph!
You can’t have a celebration of Greek community culture without a promotion of football. One of the great stalls at Yarraville was the one put together by the team from Yarraville Glory Football Club. Glory’s proud history stretches back to its founding in 1966 and they are still going strong. Linked with South Melbourne Hellas, the Glory has strong links in the local community and has been at the forefront of promoting the participation of women, many of whom were present at the stall. A big thank you to Glory fanatic Jim Babatzianis for his enthusiasm – and his gift of one of their great scarves – go Glory!
As a great supporter of projects to build awareness of the Hellenic link to Australia’s Anzac story, it was an honour for me to take part in Papaflessas’ own stall. This is the first time that we have promoted the Hellenic Anzac story in Melbourne’s West and the response was fantastic. We were kept busy selling books, answering queries from visitors wanting to learn more or others telling their own family connections to the Greek campaign of 1941.
We were particularly moved to hear the story told to us by Lisa Poulier. Her grandfather Private Mark Cassidy served with the Australian 2/7th Battalion in Greece. Army records tell us that Mark would have taken part in the long fighting retreat across Greece only to have his transport the ‘Costa Rica’ bombed as they left Kalamata for Crete. On Crete, Mark would have taken part along with Sergeant Reg Saunders in the successful Anzac charge at the battle of 42nd Street and subsequent actions as Mark’s Battalion defended the retreat to Sfakia, where most of them – including Mark – failed to be evacuated. He would have been held in temporary camps in Crete before moving on to the POW Hospital at Kokkinia near Athens and then the great camp at Thessaloniki, before moving on to the other camps in German-occupied Europe, including Stalag VIIIB where many Greek campaign veterans were held. He then had to endure the long forced marches into Germany as the war drew to a close, many of the Allied prisoners being shot or otherwise dying on the way. Lisa has been researching her grandfather’s story for many years.
I was not surprised by Lisa’s family story and their connection to Greece. There are many local families with deep connections to both Greece and its Anzac story. In previous articles in Neos Kosmos I have told some of those connected to Melbourne’s West, veterans who served in Greece. Two of these were Sapper Alec Holland and Warrant Officer Thomas Fenton, the former who worked at the Newport Rail yards came to Lemnos as an naval engineer during the Gallipoli campaign and the latter a young man from Yarraville who took part in the battle of Rethymno in May 1941 who was captured only to escape and join the Greek resistance.
In conclusion, the Yarraville Festival was a great success – and more so because of the active participation of its Greek community, who volunteered their time to remind us all of the great contribution they have made to Melbourne and Australia. Papaflessas would like to thank Con Frescos and the Yarraville Festival committee for their assistance and the Bendigo Bank, Seddon Branch, for providing their marquee.
For all interested in connecting with the Papaflessas crowd and are looking for a great event to celebrate Greek National Day, you are all invited to come to Papaflessas’ 64th Annual Independence Day Dance, 7pm, Saturday 25 March 2023, Live Entertainment by the Rythmos Band, at White Rose Receptions, 725 High Street, Thornbury, $80 3-course dinner. Get your tickets from Venuedoor.com.
Jim Claven is a training historian, freelance writer and published author. He has written many articles for Neos Kosmos and his recent publications include Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed: A Pictorial History of the Anzacs in the Aegean 1915-16 and Grecian Adventure: Greece 1941 – Anzac Stories & Photographs, the latter published by Papaflessas in 2022. He can be contacted via jimclaven@yahoo.com.au