PHILOXENIA! The 34th Annual Greek Festival returns May 15-17

Daniel Crapanzano
2 days ago
4 min read

I’m standing in the kitchen at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Wilmington, surrounded by volunteers who are baking bread. I am not a parishioner, but I’ve been kindly invited on a tour of the church by Linda Davis. She joined St. Nicholas a few years ago and has since become one of their most active members. She is the advertising chair of the church, where she also takes Greek language classes and welcomes new faces with warmth and excitement every week. She’s eager to tell me all about the church’s annual Greek Festival and all of the work that goes into it—as well as all of the joy that comes out of it—but first, we have to get through the kitchen. We’ve already marveled at the beautiful iconography of all of the saints that surround the church; we’ve stopped by the bookstore; I’ve seen the Sunday school classrooms. All of those rooms are empty save for Linda and myself on this Tuesday afternoon. The kitchen, however, is full of life.

People buzz all around me, preparing and baking communion bread for the weekend services. The bread will be blessed by Father Steven before being served to people who have been baptized as Orthodox Christians. Linda reassures me that if I visit for mass, there is still bread available for folks who haven’t been baptized. I’m beginning to realize that she’s absolutely the right pick for advertising chair here at St. Nicholas.

The room smells incredible, but I’m being told by everyone that this isn’t even a glimpse of what it will become in a few weeks during the Greek Festival.

A particularly busy bread baking parishioner stops her process to fill me in on the 34th Annual Greek Festival planned for May 15-17, 2026.

LOVE OF STRANGERS: The Greek Festival celebrates food, culture and heritage. Courtesy photo. — ***LOVE OF STRANGERS****: The Greek Festival celebrates food, culture and heritage. Courtesy photo.*

I admit to her that I’ve never attended the festival in its 33 years of operation, and she kindly paints a picture for me with a few behind the scenes facts. I learn that normally, during the festival, it takes a rotating cast of almost 200 volunteers to run the entire show. For the entire weekend, the kitchen is full with more than 10 people at a time, all cooking a range of Greek food including those famous ingredients like lamb, chicken, potatoes, and bounties of different vegetables. While the festival brings in most of the money that keeps the church operating annually, they still donate a percentage of the proceeds to charity. One of the bread bakers tells me, "Our priest is very big on giving back to the community, it’s always about giving back to the community. That’s our number one thing. We hope the people love it, we think the atmosphere is warm and loving, it shows the history and the spirit of the greek hospitality.” She searches for the Greek word, Linda’s Greek language teacher, one of the bread making volunteers, tells her that the word she’s looking for is philoxenia. It means “love of strangers.”

OPA! Volunteers with the Greek Festival prepare for another delicious weekend of Greek delights. Courtesy photo. — ***OPA!*** *Volunteers with the Greek Festival prepare for another delicious weekend of Greek delights. Courtesy photo.*

By the time that Linda and I finally get to sit down to talk about the festival, I’ve already got a great idea of what I’ll find there this year. She gestures to the ballroom that we are sitting in and tells me, “this whole room turns into a staging area for the food… You have to see it to believe it.” Maybe she’s right, and I won’t truly understand what I’ve been missing until I’m there. She does her best to fill me in on the festivities, but I think she knows by the hungry look in my eyes that I’m definitely going to experience it for myself this year.

She tells me that, of course, we’ll all find our favorite Greek dishes at the festival. Souvlaki, gyros, spanakopita, and even baklava can all be purchased and enjoyed. There will be live Greek music, dancing, and tours of the beautiful church with Father Steven. There is going to be a marketplace with all kinds of vendors and even live cooking demonstrations.

Since the pandemic, St. Nicholas has also offered a drive-thru service at their Greek Festival. So, even if you don’t want to dance, you can still enjoy a delicious, fresh spanakopita from the comfort of your car and even take a few to-go.

Preparations for the Greek Festival—typically held in May—usually begin in December. Then, St. Nicholas blocks off the church schedule for the entire week leading up to the festival; all hands are on deck.

Behind the scenes, the festival is completely run and operated by church members. The women and men of St. Nicholas volunteer their time and skill and recipes to prepare and cook all of the food available to the public. The hall of the church that typically hosts celebrations and church coffee minglers becomes a giant staging area for the festival. During the lead up to the festival, they split volunteers into teams and delegate the workload around the kitchen. The Church Administrator tells me, “it’s a well oiled machine. [We start planning the festival] before Christmas… we have an October drive-thru, so as soon as that’s over, we begin preparations for the festival.”

She shows me the schedule for the week leading up to the festivities and it’s entirely blocked off for meal prepping and other preparations. This year, just like the past 32 years, will be an all hands on deck situation. All of the helpers and volunteers make for a big, beautiful and delicious weekend-long celebration of Greek culture, food, heritage, and faith.

I’ll be there, along with all of the wonderful parish volunteers like Linda and the others. You can find me dancing with a gyro in my hand, spreading the news of the good word that I have just learned… “Philoxenia!”