Greek Festival in Stamford

Among the many Greek Festivals is the one at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Stamford.

The church at 1230 Newfield Ave. offers carnival rides, games, sit-down dinners of homemade Greek food, a night of Greek dancing and other attractions that draw about 20,000 people each year, organizers said. This year’s festival, the 28th, began yesterday and ends Sunday.

The food is prepared by the families from scratch, like what you would see in Greece. It’s exceptional. The parish priest, the Rev. Constantine Mathews, said the 200 Annunciation families put their all into the festival. “Some parishioners take their vacations now, just to help,” Mathews said. “We have beautiful grounds here we like to share, and beautiful food and dancing and hospitality.”

Tony Pappas, vice president of the parish council, said parishioners take pride in the festival, which raises money to repair the buildings and grounds and fund a school that teaches Greek.

“This is the biggest Greek festival in the state as far as I know,” Pappas said. “We go to other festivals to get ideas. We were in Bridgeport last week, and we’ll go to one in Long Island in August.”