Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to acknowledge and talk about a particular event that has been taking place in South Australia now since 1977—originally it started in my electorate at the Thebarton Oval—and that is the Glendi Greek Festival. I was very pleased to attend, representing the Prime Minister, last Saturday, 29 October. The Glendi Greek Festival is a two-day event and it is one of the largest multicultural festivals in South Australia or even the country. When I was previously involved on their committee—and I was on the committee for nearly 15 years—we used to get attendances of up to 100,000 people over the two-day weekend. It was and still is a festival that attracts South Australians from all walks of life.

I was at the opening and, as I said, delivered the Prime Minister's speech. I was also accompanied by the Consul-General of the Hellenic Republic, Mr Christos Maniakis-Grivas. Premier Jay Weatherill was there and delivered a speech. In fact, his speech got a very loud applause when he said that the marbles should be returned to Greece. The crowd erupted into cheers when he made that statement. Also in attendance was the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le, and my parliamentary colleagues Kate Ellis, the member for Adelaide, Tom Koutsantonis, who is the Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, and Jennifer Rankine, the Minister for Multicultural Affairs.

It is an event that has been held for many, many years. It is actually a project of the Hellenic Lions Club in South Australia and all the profits that are made from this two-day event go to charity. There are many volunteers who have been involved with the Hellenic Lions Club for many years. Pat Taylor, who is one of the powerhouses of the Hellenic Lions Club, has been involved for many years. Peter Luka and Anastasia Potiris are people who have put in an enormous number of hours of volunteer work to ensure that they run the Hellenic Lions Club but also this particular festival, which is one of the great festivals of South Australia. The chair of the Glendi Greek Festival, Mr John Chefalakis, and Mr Ladas, who is the convenor of the coordinating committee, also put in long hours to make sure that this is a great success.

This year there was a new venue. It was held at the Wayville showgrounds. It was under cover, which meant that we were not at the mercy of the extremes of the weather. I have seen many Glendi festivals over the years where there have been storms or it has been really hot, which is a bit of a displeasure for the people attending. But this way ensured that, regardless of the weather, people were very comfortable inside. When I was up on stage giving my speech there would have been at least 5,000 or 6,000 people in the crowd from what I could see, so it attracted quite a few people. The MC for most of the weekend was George Kapiniaris, a very good actor and comedian that many of us know. He kept us entertained during the weekend. It was an excellent festival this year, with local acts and acts from Greece as well.

It also coincided with a very important and significant date on the Greek calendar, 28 October. It is known as Oxi Day in Greece, or 'No' Day, commemorating when the then Greek Prime Minister in 1940 was given an ultimatum to allow Axis forces in through the country and declared no—and so war was declared on Greece. It was important also to acknowledge this event during the weekend. There were many speeches about that as well.

The Glendi Greek Festival is an opportunity for South Australia's Greek community to showcase their culture, their wonderful foods and their beautiful dancing. The Messinian, Limnos and Pontian dance groups entertained us. They enthralled us after the opening event. I congratulate all the people who have ensured for 34-odd years that this festival has taken place. Arthur Kondopoulos was there as well. He was one of the founding board members of Glendi. Back in 1977 they had the vision to get a committee together with the Hellenic Lions Club to ensure that they showcased Greek culture and Greek food and at the same time raised some very important funds for many community groups from Canteen to the Hellenic nursing home. (Time expired)