05 July 2009

Paniyiri Greek Festival 2009


Remember the Greek dancers we saw at South Bank yesterday? Advertising the Greek Festival? We'd actually planned to go to this in May but it was postponed after all the heavy rains. So with taste buds already slavering for yummy Greek food, we set out (again!) for South Bank. I really think we need to move to the city!

It was held on Musgrave Park just in front of the Greek Club and Greek Orthodox Church. Obviously this is an incredibly popular festival! There were 3 gates and queues at all of them. Roads were closed and manned by coppers and private security (aka huge big islander boys!). If you're from Cape Town, you'll know the Constantia Festival. This is very similar in that it's got loads of rides, food stalls galore and a centre stage where dancers, choirs & other artist perform.


Doesn't look too full. Maybe we're early birds & won't have to wait in too many queues for lunch....


The Slingshot shoots this little cage containing 2 people 70metres into the air where you bounce around & spin for a bit and then they lower you again. Fun! Fun! Fun! But at $30 per person, it was a little pricey so we didn't have a go (that's our excuse & we're sticking to it!).


Colourful rides


The Slingshot shoots into the clouds!


The Octopus


Fun, colour, laughter, excited screams (or was it terror?), bells and the smell of delicious cooking wafting over the whole fair....


Rides for everyone - loved the huge colourful bouncy castle/slide thingy for the little ones.


The cooking fires......


And this is what we found when we left the fairground part.... MASSES of people in queues for all that delicous food. Souvlaki, grilled octopus, moussaka, baklava, honey puffs.... Mmmmmmm.......

So we just joined the closest line and tucked in! Further along, against this hill was the stage. The backs of the queues just blended into the crowds watching the shows on the stage. It really was a MASS of people. We sat on the hill here eating our lunch. After taking in the atmosphere for a while we decided to walk around a bit more but it really was just too crowded. As we were making our way towards a gate, Scott spotted Emma, Moss & Tom. The people we met at the Caxton Street Seafood & Wine Festival. In all those crowds, in the whole of Brisbane! What are the chances???

These are honey puffs. If you've never had them, you're SERIOUSLY missing out!!! Find them, hunt them down. Trust me, you won't be disappointed!


A short walk to South Bank and we discover MORE new stuff there. This place is absolutely amazing - there's always SOMETHING going on. This time it was the Young Designer's Market. The name really is self-explanatory - clothes, jewellry, art.


Some more walking and we discovered that today was International Tartan Day & was being celebrated with plenty of highland dancing, gaelic song & tartan, tartan and more tartan.


With a raffle


Bagpipes


Tartan & Scottish clobber


Even the littlies had a go - this little boy was just too cute!


It wouldn't have been complete with out the highland sword dance




Looking back as we were leaving


Oh look! Something else going on! The Queensland Fire & Rescue in training


Damn! That's a long ladder!

And that's all for now!

2 comments:

mupersan said...

It was Veeeerrry tempting to sign up for the Scottish band as a drummer.
The fireman thing will be left to rest as I am cured of not having a fear of heights, thanks to Bungee jumping.

Anonymous said...

Hey guys ... that looked awesome ! I've never had honey puffs before , look mouth watering-ly gooood ,will try and get my hands on some ! And why no pics of the fire men in training ??? (that too would have been a mouth watering moment ! LOL )
Gus xx