Greek Festival features food, culture

      It takes a lot of work to put on the Greek Festival.
      Every year about this time hundreds of parishioners of St. John The Baptist Greek Orthodox Church spend weeks cooking pastries and dolmatoes, which are stuffed grape leaves.
      "Everyone helps from the little ones on up," said Cathy Markakis, who is helping coordinate the event this year.
      This Labor Day she and 100 other women were busy mixing cookie batter and shaping it into tiny twisted rolls. Men pushed tall metal carts of trays laden with cookie batter down a path to be baked in the church's enclosed, outdoor oven, which can bake several hundred cookies at one time.
      A parishioner donated the oven to the church two years ago because it holds so many events that serve food, said Markakis. The church also holds a large Easter celebration that's open to the public.
      All in all, the women and men will make more than 10,000 pastries of all kinds. One of the most popular is the kourapiedes, a Greek sugar cookie. Another favorite served with coffee is kouloupakia.
      For the next few days leading up to the church's 24th Greek Festival, the parishioners will be busy setting up the stage area, tents, booths and seating in a large grassy area next to the church.
      In addition to the pastries, traditional foods such as barbecue lamb and Greek sausage will be available at food booths. Gift booths will also sell trinkets and souvenirs.
      The festival will feature all-day entertainment provided by its youth group, which will perform traditional songs and dances.
      The Greek Festival is scheduled for Sept. 25-27. Hours for Sept. 25 are 5 to 11 p.m., Sept. 26 hours are 2 to 11 p.m. and Sept. 27 hours are noon to 11 p.m. The event will be at St. John The Baptist Greek Orthodox Church, 5300 El Camino Road. Admittance is $2.
      It's the biggest fund-raising event of the year for the group. Last year more than 10,000 people attended and the church raised $100,000 for the fellowship hall it hopes to build near the 4-year-old church building. The project will cost about $2 million to build, said Markakis.
      The congregation began holding the event at Sahara's convention areas to help raise money for a new church. The old church was on Maryland Parkway and Carson Avenue.
      In those days Markakis said only a handful of people were needed to prepare the event, compared to more than 1,000 it will take to put this year's festival together. The attendance in those days was less than 100 people.
      Eventually the fund-raiser became a communitywide event.
      "We enjoy doing this for the community," Markakis. "It lets the community know this is how we pass down the Greek tradition from generation to generation."
      Besides introducing Greek culture and food to the rest of Las Vegas, the Greek Festival also brings together the small Las Vegas Greek community.
      Irene Platis, 20, is a first generation Greek American. She grew up in Las Vegas, but spent 10 years living in her homeland. She said there isn't many places where Greeks can get together and speak their language.
      "It rekindles our culture," she said.