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23.02.11
Brisbane's Paniyiri Festival - 21 & 22 May 2011
35 years ago Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister and Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen ruled Queensland; you couldn’t get a sidewalk coffee in Brisbane, ABBA dominated the airwaves and Queensland’s longest running cultural festival – Brisbane’s Paniyiri – was born.
It was in 1976 in Brisbane that a group of passionate Greeks decided to stage a festival to celebrate their rich and warm culture. They wanted to share their dance, their food, their song, their colour, their history, their Church, their traditions and their passion with all of Brisbane. This quest now continues every year, with thousands of Queenslanders paying homage to the Paniyiri Festival at Musgrave Park and The Greek Club in South Brisbane every May.
2011 will celebrate 35 years of Brisbane’s Paniyiri Festival – and everyone is invited over the weekend of May 21 and 22 to share memories and take part in a weekend which will pay tribute to Queensland’s Greek communities.
Much can happen over 35 Paniyiri Festivals … almost 4 million Honey Puffs have been devoured;, there’s been some Zorba 150,000 High Kicks performed on the dance stage; 250,000 coffees have been slurped; almost 20 tonnes of Haloumi has been enjoyed; and 3.5million souvlakia and 400,000 dolmades have sustained some 250,000 Paniyiri goers since the very first festival.
Paniyiri 2011 will celebrate 35 years of showcasing the very best in Hellenic hospitality and the biggest entertainment and cultural program yet, from dance and music, through to cultural events, fashion, food and much more, making it the longest running cultural festival in Queensland and the longest running Greek festival in the country!
On Saturday May 21 and Sunday May 22, Brisbane’s Musgrave Park and the Greek Club will be home to a birthday party of gastronomical Greek proportions and your host? A 25,000-strong Greek Community ready to teach you the Zorba, or how to really eat like a Greek. For two massive days over 60,000 festival goers will be dubbed honorary Greeks for the weekend!
In Musgrave Park more than 30 food stalls will showcase the tastes, recipes and secrets of food from all corners of Greece while on the main stage famous Greek dances the Zorba, Sirto, Kalamatiano and Sousta, performed to music performed on traditional Greek instruments including the bouzouki, tarabuka, lira and laouto are enjoyed by Greeks and non-Greeks alike in a wonderful cross cultural celebration.
While the historic steps of the Acropolis may be some 15,000km from the grassy flats of Brisbane’s Musgrave Park, all the sights, sounds, characters and culture from the country which produced Homer, haloumi, honey puffs, Socrates, Plato and the famous Zorba will be celebrated in style during the much anticipated festival.
So… if you only learn one Greek word this year, make it Paniyiri!!!
Paniyiri is Queensland’s signature celebration of all things Greek and the state’s largest cultural festival. The event will be held from Saturday May 21 and Sunday May 22 at Musgrave Park and The Greek Club in South Brisbane. Now in its 35rd successful and exciting year, Paniyiri is a community initiative of the 25,000-strong Greek community of South East Queensland. Funds raised are channeled back into the community via the Greek Orthodox Community of St George, Brisbane’s oldest Greek community established in the 1920s.
Paniyiri 2010 Fast Facts:
Date: Saturday May 21 & Sunday May 22, 2011
Time: From 12pm on Saturday and 10am on Sunday
Location: Musgrave Park & The Greek Club & Convention Centre, Edmondstone St, South Brisbane
Entry: $8 Adults (13+), $2 Aged Pensioners, Children free
www.paniyiri.com or 07 3844 1166
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