“Greek for the weekend”: Long Beach hosts the 76th annual Greek festival

Hundreds of people gathered during a heat wave to be “Greek for the weekend” through food, music and dance for Long Beach’s 76th annual Greek Orthodox Festival.

“People come to this thing to be ‘Greek for the weekend,’ because it’s always the food that drives them in, but they’re learning about the culture too,” Greek church member Pete Bacol said. 

The festival was held Aug. 30 through Sept. 1 at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church. 

“This year’s festival is definitely a lot hotter than last year,” vendor Brandie Vaughn said. 

The event offered a variety of traditional Greek foods, such as lamb chops, souvlaki in both chicken and pork options, baklava and other meatless options. 

The festival is the church’s biggest fundraiser of the year and all of the booths are volunteer run by members of the church. 

“We (the church) try to give back to the neighbors and get them to come and try the food,” Bacol, an LBCC alumnus, said. 

Dance performances were held at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., where church youth danced for the public in the center of the festival grounds. 

Youth programs are funded by the church, which include the Greek dance program, volleyball and basketball.

“We strongly believe in keeping the youth involved, which is why we work to pay for these programs,” Bacol said. 

The church community has played a large part in Bacol’s life, as he had met his wife and raised his daughters in the church.

Bacol has volunteered at the festival for over 40 years, but this was the 12th year running the Taverna booth. 

^{Volunteer Pete Bacol, center, pours olives in a bowl in preparation for orders in the Taverna booth on Aug. 31. The Taverna booth is a food booth at the Long Beach Greek Orthodox Festival which was held Aug. 30 through Sept. 1 at The Assumption of Blessed Virigin Mary Greek Orthodox Church. (Kay Pham-Nguyen)}

The Taverna booth was one of the main food booths that served entree dishes, and had the most traction after the dining hall. 

“It’s not easy but we do it for the church, our culture and community,” Bacol said. 

The event was open to the public and people of all backgrounds went for different reasons, whether it was to participate in the culture or escape daily life.

“I came here kind of as an escape from home because it’s Labor Day weekend and I didn’t want to do homework, so we came here,” attendee William Hevener said.