09/06/2026
Hello, Festival Family. 💙
You’ve been hearing from me a lot lately, and I know you’re probably sick of me by now—but I have one last post to make before I hang up my proverbial pen until next year.
Please indulge me for a moment, because I’d like to share one of my favorite Dover Greek Festival traditions.
Our volunteers are the backbone of this festival. We’ve heard—and seen—so much wonderful feedback about how friendly and welcoming everyone is. I may be biased, but it’s absolutely true.
Many of us are there from well before the doors open on Friday until the very last moments of closing on Saturday.
So that last dance on Saturday night?
That one is for us.
The band calls all the volunteers to the dance floor, and suddenly people start flowing out from the kitchen, behind the bar, the pastry tables, the Marketplace, and every corner of the hall. We stop bussing trays. We stop cleaning. We put down whatever we’re doing and meet on the dance floor.
And somehow, in that moment, all the exhaustion of the past 48 hours melts away.
All you see is the joy.
Because we really are a festival family. And for just a few minutes, we get to celebrate what we’ve accomplished together—the months of planning, the countless hours of preparation, and the sometimes literal blood, sweat, and tears that go into bringing this festival to life.
The line snakes around the hall and through itself. Everyone is laughing. Everyone is smiling. And for a little while, none of us are thinking about how tired we are.
We’re just celebrating.
So, from our festival family to yours: thank you.
Thank you for supporting our festival.
Thank you for sharing in our community.
Thank you for your patience, especially when the lines were long.
And thank you for showing us, year after year, why all of this work is worth it.
We hope you had as much fun being part of our festival as we did putting it together for you.
Until next year. 🇬🇷💙
— Elene
(Video courtesy of Danielle Wheeler)
