There are only 60 days to go until the annual two day Paniyiri Greek Festival, set to take place Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 May in Musgrave Park. The event includes authentic Greek food, music, dance and is a celebration of Greek culture. Over four decades, Paniyiri has grown to become Queensland’s signature celebration of all things Greek as one of the state’s largest cultural festivals, as well as one of the country’s longest running Greek festivals.

This year all Paniyiri ticket holders will travel free on network wide Brisbane City Council buses and Queensland Rail City Network trains thanks to a partnership between Paniyiri and TransLink. The 2018 event will include more than 30 authentic Greek food stalls which will showcase the tastes, recipes and secrets from all regions of Greece, including the Aegean, Ionian, Mainland Greece, Cyprus, Chios, Crete, Rhodes and many more. There will be all the Greek favourites, including honey puffs, haloumi, yiros, and of course, Souvlaki.

The Plateia will return for a second year celebrating the sights, smells and tastes of a traditional Greek Village, while paying tribute to the distinctive Cycladic architecture. Amongst the performers, are the Hellenic Dancers who will perform traditional dances. Greek dance groups from all over Brisbane will perform, as well as one of Australia’s leading bouzouki players, Nick Paras.

Cooking demonstrations will be available during the event hosted by some of Queensland’s best Greek cooks and chefs including Kathy Tsaples, Brisbane based sisters Bernie Papagiannis and Annette Little from Spinach Leaf, and Sam Demetriou from Cheeky Poke Bar. Brisbane siblings Danielle and George Diacos from Gertrude & Mabel will also be at the festival, as well as Little G, Lisa Peterson and Desi Carlos authors of Mediterranean Eating, and Helen Zeniou from Helen’s European Cuisine.

In 2018, festival goers are expected to down some 300,000 honey puffs, more than 100,000 Souvlakia, almost 12,000 dolmades, 20,000 coffees, 1600 kilograms of grilled halloumi, 10,000 Shiftalies (Greek Cypriot sausage) and 1000 kilograms of calamari.

Want more? Readers also enjoyed this review from the 2018 French Film Festival.