The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 1222 S. Guthrie Ave., sponsored its annual festival with fun activities for the entire family. The three-day festival, recognizing its 63rd anniversary, offered food and entertainment celebrating the culture. The event was held Sept. 21-23.
According to an organizer of the event, she estimated that about 4,000-5,000 people have been attending the festival in the last couple of years. Additionally, she said she guessed about 100-200 runners have participated in the past.
The range of events included a Toga 5K Fun Run, bakery, Greek Fry eating contest, tour of the Greek church, and an art exhibit. Open dancing and a trivial competition were offered. They had a church Tour and a fire station tour across from the church. Vendors provided arts and crafts for the public. Additionally, coins dating back to the 900 – 1200 B.C. as well as different crosses, jewelry, church bracelets, and more were on display.
In addition to all the authentic Greek food prepared, the sponsors had a few different booths run by members of our church community. There was a boutique where you could find Greek souvenirs, clothing, and costume jewelry. The Marketa booth sold official festival t-shirts, a community cookbook, and imported Greek dry goods and snacks. Finally, the fine jewelry booth provided a collection of gorgeous ancient coins, jewelry and art,” said Anastasia Boone, chair of the Greek Festival.
The foods known for the Greek culture were served at the festival. Those foods were gyros, lamb
dinner, Saganaki (a Greek salad), and calamari. For a complete listing of food available, visit
“We have been hosting the Tulsa Greek Festival annually since 1960. We’re actually the longest-
running ethnic festival in town. The first festival was more of a dinner-style event, but it has grown to an
indoor/outdoor event with lots of different food options, entertainment, and shopping,” said Boone.
On Thursday evening, the festival sponsored the Toga 5K Run. After the run, participants returned to the festival for food and refreshments. Winner of the race received coupons for food and drinks.
No activities were held on Friday.
On Saturday, the festival hosted a Greek Fry eating contest. The contest consisted of teams, including an eater and a feeder, working together to eat the most fries. The winner of the contest was crowned. In addition to those events, other programs were the following: Greek Trivia, open dancing, and dancing performances. The neighboring fire station conducted tours on Friday and Saturday.
Boone said, “We have actually expanded the festival, in a way, over the last couple of years. Due to the pandemic, we had to adapt the festival to a new format to keep it going. This created the “Greek Street Drive Thru,” where we served the most popular foods from our festival via a drive thru out of our community building. This was so popular that we now have a drive-thru event in the spring in addition to our traditional festival.”
She concluded saying, “We love this city and love sharing our Greek culture with the Tulsa metropolitan community.” She said she hopes everyone who was able to attend enjoyed the food, dancing, and fun.