DENVER | The cooking started in earnest two months ago.
An army of dozens reported to the community center at the Assumption of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Denver on weekdays and weekends. They started prepping dozens of dishes on hundreds of baking pans, working together to build up a store that would feed thousands. Weeks before the official kickoff of this year’s annual Denver Greek Festival on Friday, these volunteers worked to make sure all who showed up would be fed. And fed well.
Panagiota Anadiotis, a church member who’s been volunteering for the festival for more than 30 years, had a simple justification for the untold hours she’s spent cooking massive amounts of baklava, sweet bread, spanakopita and other Greek delicacies.
“We started in April,” said Panagiota, an Aurora resident who moved to Colorado from Greece in 1964. “I do this because I love my church. I have fun cooking, but it’s because of the church. It’s for my community.”
For nearly 50 years, the Denver Greek Festival has been a bridge between the metro area’s Greek community and the larger public. The Greek Orthodox Cathedral off of Alameda Avenue is in an ideal spot to serve as a common meeting ground; the Aurora boundary is mere blocks to the east, and the physical building straddles the border between Denver and Glendale. More notably, the church’s towering gold dome is an easily recognizable landmark to residents and commuters from across the city.
The annual festival takes advantage of that strategic position.
“It is a neighborhood event, but it draws from all over the Denver area,” said Elaine Koutsulis Laird, a member of the church congregation and a member of the festival committee. “Our volunteers come from all over as well. We have a church in Greenwood Village and a church in Boulder … Everybody seems to know the gold dome.”
This weekend, that iconic gold dome will be a meeting point for lovers of Greek culture from all backgrounds. Every summer, the grounds around the church and the community center transform in to a cultural fairgrounds, a fenced-off festival site that features live music, dancers, vendors and, of course, plenty of food.
The featured entrees include classic Greek staples like the pork dish Souvlaki, gyros and lamb sandwiches, kalamari and dolmathes. The dessert menu includes baklava, Greek yogurt with honey and plenty of authentic varieties of cookies and pastries. Prices for the meals range from $3 to $7.
“For $7, you get a whole sandwich, and for $3, you get a little taste of something, but it’s not that small,” Laird said. “You pick four entrees for $12. It’s very reasonably priced, because we want the whole family to be happy and find something to eat,” she said, adding that this year’s menu includes vegetarian selections.
Feeding the crowd of about 20,000 that shows up over the course of three days is no easy feat. The entire network of the church community center had been transformed a week before the festival. The floors were lined with plastic, crowds of volunteers prepared pastries in the central meeting hall and the windows in the second-story kitchen had been opened to accommodate a complicated food delivery system. During the festival, pastries and sandwiches would be lowered to the fairgrounds via a crane.
“We came up with a new system. Now you’re going to pay for your food in advance with a token and get it and go,” Laird said. “You can get your food while it’s hot, and there’s no waiting for the customer.”
As important as food is to the festival (and to Greek culture in a more general sense), this year’s celebration will feature plenty of other attractions. The musical lineup includes performances by the Hellenic Dance Academy of Denver, the Idomeneas Cretan Dancers, the Assumption Cathedral Choir and the traditional Greek folk band Etho Ellas.
“We have a carnival set up for the kids,” Laird said. “We have midway games and rides.”
A group of vendors will be on hand with authentic Greek jewelry, clothes and crafts. The festival grounds will also include a coffee shop where attendees can get out of the sun. Visitors can also take guided tours of the church itself and get a firsthand view of the elaborate murals that decorate the top of the iconic dome.
All of the proceeds will go to the church, as well as charities that include Bonfils, Save Our Youth and the St. Francis Center.
As in past years, the combination of food, music, clothing and miscellaneous culture is all part of a push to bring Greek culture to the masses, for at least one day in the year.
“When you’re Greek, the church is not just a religious place; it’s also part of your social center,” said Laird, who moved to Denver more than 10 years ago. “When I first came here, I thought, ‘How will I ever meet people? I’ll go to church. That’s where I might meet people with similar interests’ … This is a chance to participate in that. People can eat all the food, they can dance.
“They can be Greek for the weekend,” she added.
As important as the local church has been for Anadiotis since she moved to the United States in 1964, she said she’ll need to take a break after the chaos and stress of the festival ends. But culturally speaking, she won’t travel too far away from the gold dome on Dahlia Street.
“I’m going to take a little vacation,” she said. “I’m going to Greece.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com