For the 32nd year in a row, in the presence of tens of thousands of festival goers, Hellenism of Sydney stayed loyal to its annual meeting with Darling Harbour for the two-day event and the official opening of the Greek Festival of Sydney, held by the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW.
Those who found themselves in Tumbalong Park on Sunday afternoon witnessed and welcomed a historic moment, since for the first time in its 32 year history the festival was officially launched by the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Tony Abbott.
Announcing the Festival officially open, Mr Abbott stressed the importance of supporting Australia’s multicultural community and in particular the contribution of the Greek community to the development and wellbeing of the wider Australian society.
The presence of the prime minister reinforced the prestige the festival enjoys not only as one of the leading multicultural events of NSW, but also the whole of Australia, as the President of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW Harris Danalis and the chairperson for the Greek Festival of Sydney Nia Karteris stressed in their speeches.
They both congratulated the members of the Greek community in Sydney for their massive turnout and invited them to take part in over 30 events during the next two months. These cultural initiatives are part of this year’s fFestival, which aims to cover multiple aspects of Greek Australian identity.
This year’s program includes events for the 400 years since the death of the painter Dominikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco), the presentation of a book on the poet C.P. Cavafy, the presentation of research on the Greek communities from Albania to Ukraine and many other events.
Among the speakers during the official launch of the festival were the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Stavros Kirimis, the Shadow Minister for Finance Tony Burke, who represented the leader of the federal opposition, the Chair of the Community Resources Commission of NSW, Vic Alhadeff, representatives of local and state government, representatives of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, community leaders and Mr Tom Christopoulos, NSW Manager of Delphi Bank, the festival’s sponsor.
Attending the event were also Assistant Treasurer Senator Arthur Sinodinos, federal Liberal MP for Barton Nick Varvaris, and Victorian Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Nicholas Kotsiras.
The festival program included a plethora of music events, while the central figures of the two nights were singer Konstantina and well known Greek Australian actor George Kapiniaris, who not only proved himself in the presenter’s shoes, but also made thousands of festival goers laugh with his Greek Australian jokes.
For one more year, the NSW Greek Community youth had a strong presence at the festival.
At some point on Saturday, three people were seen wearing T-shirts and handing out leaflets for Golden Dawn. They were quickly identified and removed by security officers.