After stuffing ourselves silly on great Greek food at the Pensacola Greek Festival, Mom and I were ready for some souvenir shopping and Greek dancing. After letting dinner digest and watching some of the Greek Parishoners and our dinner mate dancing with the children in the center square set up for dancing, Mom and I left our pastries with our dining partners, the retired Navy couple and went to another tent where many Greek souvenirs were for sale along with Greek pastries and cookies in gift packs. My sister Erika had asked if we could find Gyro meat there to pick some up, but none was available for sale. I was hoping to get some grape leaves for me to make my own vegetarian Dolma, stuffed grape leaves, at home, but I was disappointed that this festival didn't have Greek canned goods for sale like the festival in Boise had.
But this festival had a nice assortment of jewelry and other Greek souvenirs for us to choose from, and I got a pretty necklace on a black cord with purple beads and a Greek cross for $8. I added a little Greek flag for my flag collection for $3 and was happy to go home with something from this festival. Mom got another nice necklace for herself, and we took our goodies and returned to our table to watch the dancing that was to begin at any time.
The young dancers were just lining up in the big tent near the dance floor as Mom and returned to our table, and we paused long enough for the American and Greek National Anthems to play before sitting down and chatting with the Navy couple. The chatty hubby said they were coming back for more food the next day and said it's a great time for all to have when in Pensacola.
A few minutes later, the dancers began their routines. The first dance group were called Hara and consisted of young girls and boys from the ages of 6-10. The girls were dressed in black jumpers with colorful ribbon trim on the skirt and red kerchiefs. The boys had on red caps and knickers along with white shirts. They did a couple of dances and then we saw the instructor running up as if to fix the hat of one of the boys. We thought "maybe they should wait until after they finish dancing!," but after a while we started to see the parents of the dancers running up to their kids and putting money in their kerchief and hat bands in accordance to Greek tradition.
After the young kids finished their dancing, it was the older kids' turn. The older group of dancers were known as the Glenzethes and like the Hara Dancers, they are ambassadors to the Greek Orthodox Church in Pensacola and travel all over the world performing good deeds and dancing. The age of the Glenzethes was from 11-18, and the boys were dressed in white shirts with black knickers and burgundy vests with metallic trim. The young ladies had on blue velvet jackets and long skirts over white slips and blouses, and the outerwear had metallic gold trim. The ladie's hair was covered by beautiful long white scarves. The Glenzethes performed a couple of dances together before the finale which was the young men doing an awesome dance of leaps and turns. Now didn't Anthony Bourdain say on his show No Reservations that he felt like he was in the middle of a Greek "Riverdance?!"
The Glenzethes and Hara Dancers were all great and we enjoyed about 40 minutes of entertainment from them. By 6:15, Mom and I decided we had enough fun for the night and decided to head home saying we would be back next year for more fun and food.
The Greek Orthodox Festival is held every November in Pensacola, but you can sample much of the food at several local eateries like Chrisoula's Cheesecake Shoppe and Aegean Breeze Greek Food, Seafood, and Steaks thoughout Pensacola. The Festival is well-worth your time.