One of Australia’s largest cultural festivals, the annual Antipodes Festival kicks off this weekend in Melbourne, bringing live performances, Greek cuisine, traditional dancing and many other activities and events celebrating Greek heritage to thousands of visitors.
Over 100,000 people are expected to flood the Lonsdale Street corridor (once the epicenter of Melbourne’s Greek community) over Saturday, February 22 and Sunday, February 23 during the 37th Antipodes Festival. The event, stewarded by the Greek Community of Melbourne, is a vibrant showcase of Greek music, food, dance, and beverages, all while visitors are communing with their fellow Greek-Australians and other festivalgoers.
Festival director Jorge Menidis says Antipodes celebrates both Greek and Greek-Australian culture. “It is a Melbourne festival, not a ‘Greek festival.’ It defines one’s identity -it is born of another place and another time but it speaks to a generation that has been born here, in the Antipodes,” Menidis says.
“The artists, the musicians and dancers, and the audience identify with something that is geographically remote but inherent in their own personal identities,” he adds.
Beyond tradition, this year’s festival features internationally renowned artists performing at the Greek Festival Darling Harbor in Sydney’s Darling Harbor, like Nikos Zoidakis and Xylourides, who bring a fusion of Greek folk and modern sounds.
The festival has rapidly evolved over the years, with organizers saying while 20 years ago there were about 25 stalls, now there are 95. Meanwhile, Antipodes has been having a growing appeal to non-Greeks. A study commissioned by Melbourne University found that nearly 50 percent of the festival attendees were non-Greeks.
Melbourne, the heart of the Greek-Australian diaspora and of Greek festivals
Melbourne has the largest population of Greeks outside of Greece and is also a sister city to Thessaloniki.
The Greek-Australians left the homeland for many reasons, though the majority of immigrants came to Australia after World War II, when the Greeks arrived in the tens of thousands.
Suburban milk bars and fish and chips shops up to the 1980s were owned by Greeks, and restaurants serving Greek fare can be found throughout Melbourne, the Greek Quarter describes.
Greek immigrants have since contributed to all facets of Melbourne’s cultural and social life, politics at federal, State and local government levels, and sport.
Lonsdale St is host to the Lonsdale St Greek Festival. It is Melbourne’s biggest Greek street party, a weekend of Greek culture, food and entertainment, in the city’s historic Greek Precinct.
On the other hand, the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales (GOC) is the oldest and largest organised Greek community entity in Australia. It was established in 1897 to serve the spiritual, cultural and socio-economic needs of the Greek settlers and their children.
The community has been staging the Greek Festival of Sydney during the months of February, March, April, May and June since 1980. Its portfolio boasts a plethora of artistic and cultural events including the 2-day outdoor festival at Darling Harbour, a 10-day film festival in October, theatrical performances, exhibitions, concerts, lectures, music, folkloric activities and cross-cultural activities.