Belmont Greek Festival Set for Labor Day Weekend,
September 5-7

The three-day Belmont Greek Festival will feature delicious Greek meals and desserts, continuous music and dancing, exciting exhibition folk dancing, choral folk singing, a captivating mythology play and a fun children’s amusement area with performances on Saturday by children’s entertainer Andy Z.

More than 15,000 people are expected to attend, festival organizers said.

“Greeks are famous for their hospitality,” said Festival Co-Chairmen Gary Brenner and Mark Simon. “So naturally, we’ll go out of our way to make sure everyone has a great time at our festival.”

“It all starts with lots of fantastic, mouth-watering food,” Brenner & Simon said, “and it keeps on going with the fun and excitement of the dancing, music and theater.”

“Before you know it, you’ll be shouting, ‘Opa,’ just like the Greeks,” they added.

Some of the favorite festival menu items will be souvlakia (Greek shish-kebab), barbecued lamb chops (with special Greek seasonings), spanakopita (spinach and cheese stuffed inside layers of filo pastry) and dolmades (grape leaves wrapped around ground beef and rice).

There will also be traditional homemade Greek pastries such as loukoumades (doughnut holes covered with honey), baklava (layers of nuts and filo pastry soaked in honey), kourambiedes (crescent-shaped butter cookies covered with powdered sugar) and galactobouriko (filo pastry filled with custard and covered with syrup).

To prepare these foods, the festival cooks use 500-600 pounds of filo pastry, 500 pounds of feta cheese, more than 500 pounds of butter, 180 dozen eggs and 1,000 pounds of ground beef.

Cooking demonstrations will be offered so visitors can learn to become Greek cooks themselves, Brenner and Simon said.

Visitors also will enjoy continuous music from a Greek band so they can dance the traditional kalamatiano, tsamiko, zeimbekiko and other Greek dances. In addition, several award-winning folk dance groups will perform throughout the weekend in their colorful, hand-made costumes.

In an outdoor amphitheater reminiscent of the ancient theaters of Greece, children and adults alike will enjoy a special theatrical production featuring the heroes and villains of Greek mythology. The popular Festival Singers and Folk Ensemble also will perform Greek folk songs in the amphitheater.

The Fun Zone Children’s Area will offer an inflated bouncing structure, games, rides and crafts for young people. New this year will be two performances on Saturday by children’s singer-songwriter-guitarist Andy Z.

Tours of the award-winning Byzantine-style church, including the recently-installed mosaic iconography, will be given throughout the weekend, and the Holy Cross Church Liturgical Choir will sing during the church tour on Sunday at 2:00 PM.

Other festival highlights will include art, clothing, jewelry and gift boutiques, and displays of beautiful Orthodox icons from around the world.


The Church of the Holy Cross supports many charitable groups throughout San Mateo County, and each year, the church donates a portion of the festival proceeds to several local charities. Previous recipients of festival donations have included Samaritan House, Interfaith Network for Community Help (INCH), Children’s Advocacy Council, local schools and churches and the Belmont mayor’s choice of charity. In addition, Holy Cross Church sponsors several children from the Children’s Receiving Home of San Mateo County as special guests of the festival.

The hours of the Belmont Greek Festival are Saturday, September 5, and Sunday, September 6, from Noon to 10 PM, and on Monday, September 7, from Noon to 8 PM. The Fun Zone for children closes at 7 PM all three days. The Agora (our "White Elephant" room) closes at 6 PM all three days.

Admission is $5 for adults and $2.50 for seniors and youth ages 13-17. Children 12 and under are admitted free, accompanied by a parent or guardian.

For more information, visit www.goholycross.org or call (650) 591-4447. Yassou!

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