The annual Albuquerque Grecian Festival made its return over the weekend, still full of Greek traditions, this time to honor 51 years of festivities.
The festival raises funds for the Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in the East Downtown neighborhood. Members of the church work together to cook, bake and perform for one full weekend to immerse visitors in Greek culture.
Madeleine Miller, a member of the church’s Parish Council, said the event brings the community together and shows more people about Greek culture.
“Our church has evolved as well, before it used to be everybody was, you know, Greek from Greece, and they were descendants of Greeks, but now we have a more multi-denominational church,” Miller said. “So when we say it’s a Greek Orthodox church, Greek is our origin, it’s not necessarily all we are, we welcome everybody and we’re happy to welcome everybody.”
Most itineraries for each day of the weekend were full from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., including live music and dance performances that took place under a large tent outside where visitors could gather around to eat their food and watch the performers.
A member of the church’s congregation, Dominick Barelas, was dressed as Saint George on Sunday and walked around the festival, taking pictures and talking attendees.
Members of the event assembled arrays of authentic Greek dishes, including popular items such as gyros, dolmádes, pastítsio, souvláki and kóta riganáti, among others.
Dolmádes small, cold fresh dish made of grape leaves and stuffed with rice, meat and fresh herbs. The kóta riganáti is a small, whole, juicy chicken, which was served on a bed of festival rice with a small side salad.
Coffee and pastries were also available for dessert or as an early-morning treat. Some pastries served include cheesecake baklava, baklava sundaes, tsourékia, almond cookies, paximádia and glykó koutí, or a variety box for those who couldn’t pick just one.
The loukoumáthes were one of the most popular items sold at this year’s festival, according to Miller. She described the pastry as a mix between a sopapilla and a donut hole, because they are little puffs of dough that are soaked in honey, then dipped in powdered sugar.
A few other varieties of the loukoumáthes available were served with ice cream, or drizzled with milk, white chocolate or Merenda, which is described on the event’s website as “the Greek version of Nutella.”
The donut holes were brought back for this year’s event after not being available during previous years, and quickly sold out. Miller says the pastry’s popularity at the festival seems to grow every year, and people will call the church to ask where they can get them.
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“We’re the only place that makes them in the city: the Greek Festival,” Miller said. “So anybody who wants loukoumáthes, you’re out of luck until next year.”
Lexis Lovato is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @lovatolexis
