The Greek Festival at St. Andrew's

Annually, a June weekend · St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church, 52455 Ironwood Road

The festival: The longest-running of the parish festivals is the Greek Festival at St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church on Ironwood Road — three June days of souvlaki and spanakopita, loukoumathes fried to order, church tours, and the Hellenic Dance Troupe in costume, the parish's largest fundraiser and its open door to the city. Its age is counted by its own numbering, and the count is consistent at both ends the record gives: the Tribune's photographers covered the 27th annual festival in 2002 — dancers from St. George of Schererville joining the Kalamatiano in the crowd — and the parish's own announcement of the 38th annual festival fixed it for June 7–9, 2013, which puts the first festival in 1976 by the festival's own arithmetic. A Michiana business journal's account counts forty-two years of the festival; the parish's histories credit it with drawing thousands each year, in the parish's own words.

The troupe and the present day: The Hellenic Dance Troupe, the festival's performing heart, was established in April 1994 under Father Christ Kontos, its first authentic costumes the Karagouna of Thessaly and an island dress of Symi; by the 2017 festival its senior troupe had added costumes from Tsakonia, Amorgos, Pontos, and Kalymnos. The parish's festival pages, maintained into 2025, keep the festival on its June weekend — the same ground where the county fair's institution also lives on Ironwood Road, a mile of the city's summer given to gathering.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune, 2002 — "Church festival serves food, tradition, culture": the 27th annual South Bend Greek Festival at St. Andrew's, in text and photographs.
2. St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church — the 38th Annual Greek Festival announcement, June 7–9, 2013, and the parish festival pages (updated 2025).
3. The St. Andrew Way, July 2018 — the History of the Hellenic Dance Troupe: established April 1994, its costumes and their additions.
4. Michiana Business Review — the festival at forty-two years, its $3 admission and its all-ages draw.