Greek Festival Celebrates Food, Culture and Dance in Santa Barbara

SB Greek Festival

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Locals and tourists gathered for the 52nd annual Greek Festival in Santa Barbara, hungry for authentic food and eager to learn traditional dance moves.

Hosted by Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, the festival featured booths offering Greek food, pastries, coffee, jewelry, and religious décor. Proceeds from the event supported the church.

A $5 entrance fee included a raffle ticket, giving attendees a chance to win $3,000 or a two-person trip to Greece. The festival offered a full cultural experience, highlighting Greek food, music and dance.

loukoumades

Festivalgoers sampled Mediterranean favorites including gyros, hummus and pita, souvlaki, Greek coffee, and loukoumades—fried dough drizzled with honey. The dessert booth showcased a variety of traditional sweets such as koulourakia (butter cookies), kourambiédes (powdered sugar cookies), melomakárona (honey cookies), and karithópita (walnut cake).

Honey and walnuts—common staples in Greek cuisine—are prized not only for flavor but also for their nutritional value, providing energy and essential vitamins like zinc.

In addition to food, the festival featured Greek wine tastings and imported Greek beer, adding to the immersive culinary experience.

Each food booth displayed banners recognizing their sponsors. The pastry booth was sponsored by Dean Pollali, George Fonti and Sophia Fonti of Redwood City, Calif. The souvlaki booth was sponsored by Ideal Meat. Other sponsors included Handlebar, Nick the Greek, Figueroa Mountain, Noozhawk, Demetria, Jordano’s Foodservice, Stephen’s Market Grill, Metson Marin Services, Feiio, and Town & Country.

Booths encircled a large open area and dance floor where live Greek music played throughout the day. Traditional dance groups Zoi and Pnevma performed and offered lessons to eager participants.

SB Greek Festival booths

Beyond food and dancing, the festival showcased local businesses. Beyond Bella, a Long Beach-based pop-up jewelry shop, was among the vendors. Panos Maheras, owner of LA Greek Market, also had a booth featuring traditional Greek pantry items. Maheras, who sells online at lagreekmarket.com, said Greek Tahini with Cocoa was a best-seller, with three full cases sold during the weekend. His offerings included Greek pasta, candies, spreads and sodas.

For younger guests, a kids’ tent provided activities such as lawn games, bounce houses and arts and crafts.

If you missed the Greek Festival this year, organizers encourage you to mark your calendar for next August when the event returns for another two-day celebration.

In the meantime, food lovers can look forward to the Greek Grab N Go pop-up event, also presented by Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church. Preorders are open through Oct. 10 at GreekGrabNGo.com, with food pickup scheduled for Oct. 25 at the church.