The Warren Greek Fest takes place at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, where there is a carnival area and various tents and food stations offering everything from lamb shanks and gyros to ice cream and pastries. There is also a market area, live entertainment and church tours.
2023 DATE: July 19-23, 2023
Location: St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church
3223 Atlantic St NE
Warren, OH 44483
Website: https://www.facebook.com/warrengreekfest/
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This post documents my experience on July 21, 2023.
Festival Structure
The festival area at the Warren Greek Fest takes place around the Banquet Center on the church grounds and is a pretty sizeable space, allowing the festival to use an area for a carnival while still having room for a large dining/entertainment tent and many other food stations.
Food stations are either lined along the Banquet Center or under a tent. While there may be some overlapped food items between the outside food stations and the main dining area inside the Banquet Center, they typically offer dishes that are prepared on site, such as gyros, saganaki, fried calamari and ice cream.
The main dining area is in the Banquet Center, which offers traditional meal items and an area for pastries.
A vendor market can be found in an adjoining room.
Carnival
The carnival has a nice selection of rides with varied thrill levels so that kids of all ages can enjoy. A fun slide and spinning strawberries are great for the little ones while large spinning rides are perfect for teenagers and young adults who still like to get dizzy.
Other offerings of the carnival include prize games and fair food, which includes funnel cakes, corn dogs and lemon shakes.
The Food
The majority of people come to the Warren Greek Fest for the food and there is plenty of it to be found.
Food stations advertise each of their offerings from fried cheese to freshly made gyros.
While trying to decide what to eat, it’s fun to get up close to some of the booths and see how things are being made as most food station items were prepared right there.
Some of the food station items can’t be found at other stations or dining areas.
The kalamari, for example, needs to be fried outdoors and is best served hot, so festival goers would need to go to that specific station to get it.
Meanwhile, at the back of the festival grounds…
…you can find the Taverna.
Here, along with adult beverages and tables for eating, there is a menu that includes pork and chicken souvlaki, lamb on pita and hot sausage sandwiches.
But for the most coveted Greek dishes, festival goers need to only find the entrance of the Banquet Center among the long line of food stations.
Inside the dining area are two lines for meal items and a station for desserts.
This is where you can find lamb shank dinners, stuffed grape leaves, pastitsio and so much more.
I picked up some of my own favorites – moussaka and spanakopita.
Both were very delicious.
The Vendor Market
The vendor market is found in the Banquet Center’s dining hall in an adjoining room.
Like other Greek Festivals, items found for sale include religious artifacts, all sorts of jewelry, and fine art (Anko-Art).
This year, Diana’s Delectables sold all sorts of assorted chocolate treats that looked particularly appealing.
Tours and Entertainment
To let the body digest between courses, the carnival might not be the best option for some, so there were other diversions that the festival provided.
A small tent to the side was sort of set up like an outdoor church.
The interior was setup for group and individual prayer.
This is also the meeting spot for festival goers who wish to go off on church tours and learn about the church’s history and the Greek Orthodox faith.
The main entertainment, meanwhile, was found under the large dining tent.
Here, a stage was set up for live music with a cleared area in front of it for dance performances.
And the entertainment was definitely worth staying for!