Portarlington to host its first-ever Greek Festival by the sea

When Alexandra Dascarellos couldn’t marque it to Melbourne’s Greek festivals due to the fact that of her ain makers markets, she decided to bring 1 location instead.

“If the upland won’t spell to Muhammad, then Muhammad indispensable spell to the mountain,” she laughs.

“My markets successful Barwon Heads and Portarlington are quality, successful events, they gave maine the assurance to say, I tin bash this!”

That spark of determination became the driving unit down the first-ever Portarlington Greek Festival, acceptable for Sunday 2 November, transforming the Bellarine Peninsula into a seaside solemnisation of Greek food, dance, and civilization from 10am to 5pm.

With implicit 10,000 radical expected, the festival promises something for everyone. Headliners Anagenisi will play live, alongside performances by Joanna’s Belly Dancing School, Pegasus Dance Academy, and Panagia Soumela’s Pontiac Group of traditional dancers.

The Bellarine Big Band will execute extracurricular Parks Hall, while roving belly dancers and percussionist Achilles connected the touberleki bring the streets to life.

Between acts, spontaneous dancing is not lone welcome but inevitable, says Dascarellos.

Festival organiser Alexandra Dascarellos welcomes visitors to Portarlington, proudly flying the Greek emblem where the ferry docks bring thousands to the Bellarine.

Greek flavours will abound. Souvlaki, seafood platters, oysters shucked connected the spot, loukoumades, and traditional cakes, positive drinks from Danny Doy Distillery.

Local makers will showcase handcrafted goods and jewellery, including Dascarellos’s ain good creations made utilizing past Greek wire coiling techniques.

Entry is free, with donations encouraged; a 4th of proceeds will spell to families of firefighters who died successful Greece’s caller bushfires, which raged astir Patras.

Even earlier the archetypal enactment is played, talk of making the festival an yearly lawsuit is spreading fast. “People are already asking when the adjacent 1 will be,” says Dascarellos.

Performer Joanna from Joanna’s Belly Dancing School will dazzle audiences with colourful question and vigor during the Portarlington Greek Festival.

“Portarlington deserves this. The modern Greeks, we’re doctors, builders, teachers, artists, we’re arrogant Australians, arrogant Greeks. This festival celebrates that.”

And yes, she adds with a wink, “I mightiness adjacent creation to Rosa, my dad’s favourite song, connected stage.”

For Dascarellos, the lawsuit is much than a assemblage festival, it’s a emotion missive to her practice and to her precocious father, Nicholas, and mother, Georgia, who migrated from Patra successful 1953.

Nicholas, a wooden vessel builder and fisherman, raised 8 children while selling his drawback from Portarlington and Swan Bay.

The playground beside the oversea sets the country for household amusive during the Portarlington Greek Festival, surrounded by autochthonal trees and Bellarine Bay views.

She’ll stock his story successful her opening speech, honouring his bequest done dance, song, and the very assemblage spirit helium embodied.

“When I went to Greece two years ago, radical said my siblings and I were much Greek than the Greeks successful Greece! Dad would beryllium so proud.”

Bringing a large festival to the Bellarine wasn’t easy, it required courage, paperwork, and a fewer miracles.

“It was a bold determination to submit the lawsuit application,” she admits. “The CEO of Bellarine Bayside, Mr Crabtree, said he’d o.k. it if I got two letters of support. So I went retired and got them.”

A coastal playground carved from nature, the Portarlington Greek Festival will unfold connected these very grounds, overlooking the bay astatine W. G. Little Reserve. Photos: Supplied

One came from the Portarlington Business Development Association (PBDA), the different from the Portarlington Community Association (PCA). The turning constituent came when PBDA president Mark Williams, who had precocious moved from Moonee Ponds, recognised the potential.

“Mark and his wife Katerina emotion Greece and Greek culture. He represented my festival to the committee and adjacent spoke to the PCA. Thanks to them both, and Bellarine Bayside, my imagination came true.”

Local traders, the Grand Portarlington Hotel’s wide manager Greg Amor, and adjacent the Portarlington ferry work person since thrown their support down the event.

“Everyone’s been amazing. This is what assemblage looks like,” says Dascarellos.

The Bellarine Express ferry connects Melbourne straight to Portarlington, making it casual for visitors to get by oversea for the festival’s celebrations.

The Portarlington Greek Festival will tally from 10am to 5pm connected Sunday, 2 November, astatine W.G. Little Reserve and Parks Hall, Newcombe Street. Free entry; donations welcome.