Fri 6/27-Sun 5/29 @ Noon-Midnight
Mon 5/30 @ noon-8PM
All summer long, the northeast Ohio festival calendar is packed with ethnic church festival, sharing Slovenian, Italian, Polish, Egyptian, Ukrainian, Indian and other cultures.
The season kicks off with one of of the biggest, oldest festivals is the Tremont Greek Festival taking place at Annunciation Church on West 14th right of the freeway and easy to find. There visitors will find the heaps and heaps of ethnics specialty foods that are the centerpiece of all church festivals, handmade by church members: mousakka, pastitsio, souvlaki, dolmathes, gyro and spanakopita (a specialty of my late Aunt Katherine in Fort Wayne), as well as a dozen Greek desserts — try something other than baklava, although they have that too. They’re accompanied by Greek wines, beers, coffee, and of course ouzo (go easy on that one — it packs a punch!)
Of course the entertainment is part of the atmosphere, and there’ll be Greek music and dancing all day every day inside and out. There are also the requisite church tours you’ll want to make time for, as well as vendors of Greek imports and crafts.
Admission is free, and you can bring your small pet if you can carry it. (It’s too crowded to walk an animal.) But your cat told me he wants to stay home and sleep.