Between July 25 and 27, the 19th Ocean City Greek Festival will take place at the Ocean City Convention Center. Sponsored by St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Ocean City, Md., the festival will continue its tradition of bringing authentic Greek food, music and fellowship to Ocean City. Over the course of the three-day event, an estimated 5,000 people are expected to attend.
During the festival, the Convention Center will host 14 or 15 vendors selling everything from jewelry and leather goods to T-shirts and Greek artifacts. There will also be live entertainment each night, from 5 to 11 p.m., with authentic Greek music performed by the band Zephyrpus. Demetrakia, a group of dancers from St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Baltimore will also be dancing at the event.
The main attraction, however, is the authentic Greek food.
Norma Lewis, the secretary of St. George’s Church, said church members have been preparing for the event since the beginning of June — prepping and freezing the food before it is cooked on-site each day of the festival.
“Greek men are great cooks!” she noted. “The ladies help them with the main courses, the pastitsio, the Greek meatballs, and then the ladies do all these different kinds of pastries, including baklava and homemade bread… This is quite an undertaking.”
St. George’s Church, which was established in the early 1980’s, pays for all the costs of holding the festival. Use of the Convention Center and their cooking facilities alone costs more than $15,000 dollars. The church only makes back about 60 percent of the overall expense of holding the Greek Festival.
“It’s very hardworking Greek people who do this on their own,” said Lewis. “It amazes me, because most of them are middle-aged and senior people, and they work so hard for two months to put this on.”
The church also sells advertisements in their program book to help defray expenses until the festival opens.
The Ocean City Greek Fest will be held Friday and Saturday, July 25-26, from noon to 11 p.m. and on Sunday, July 27, from noon to 9 p.m. Admission costs $2 from noon to 4 p.m.; from 4 p.m. onward, the charge is $3, due to the live entertainment. Children younger than 14 are admitted free, as long as they are accompanied by an adult.
For more information, call St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church at (410) 524-0990. The Ocean City Convention Center is located on Coastal Highway, at 40th Street and the Bay in Ocean City, Md.