Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to congratulate the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria on not only another successful Lonsdale Street Greek Festival, which took place this weekend, but also on celebrating 30 years of continuous festival activities in Lonsdale Street. I also want to acknowledge that the local member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, was in attendance and has always been in attendance.

It is an exciting milestone because this festival began as a success story and continues to be one 30 years later. In fact, my very first real job was as coordinator of Greek Week, the forerunner of today's Lonsdale Street Greek Festival. It began as a week of events in and around Melbourne celebrating Hellenism and Greek culture. It grew into the Antipodes Festival and came under the auspices of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria.

The Lonsdale Street Festival is a combination of the hard work of Melbourne's Greek community and is supported by the Victorian government. I want to commend the dedication and tireless work of the festival team, led by Jorge Menidis and Penny Kyprianou, the festival's co-chairs, Tammy Ilious and Leonidas Vlahakis, and the many and varied enthusiastic volunteers who I want to acknowledge, as they are behind-the-scenes masters who enable this weekend-long event to run smoothly and become bigger and bigger each year. This year, I understand, there were some 100,000 people who rocked Lonsdale Street this weekend.

Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too would like to talk about the Greek Lonsdale Street Festival held in Melbourne on Saturday evening. It was an absolute pleasure to be together with my friend and colleague the Hon. Kelly O'Dwyer, members for Higgins and Minister for Finance and Revenue, who was representing our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, a self-proclaimed philhellene, at the 30th Lonsdale Street Greek Festival.

The Lonsdale Street Festival, also commonly known as the Antipodes Festival, is the largest celebration of Hellenic culture outside Greece. It has been organised by the Greek community of Melbourne since 1987. The vibe and excitement of the event was palpable, with tens of thousands of people embarking on the Greek precinct of Melbourne's CBD to partake in the festival at its milestone 30 year event. We heard the wonderful students of Alphington Grammar sing with pride the national anthems of both Australia and Greece. The longevity of such an amazing event is a testament to the strength, camaraderie and absolute friendship amongst Melbourne's Greek community.

The City of Melbourne is intrinsically linked to the Greek culture and this was on magnificent display last weekend. The event is a celebration of Australia's Greek community, of our immigration heritage and story and enduring love for Greek Australians. Many thanks go to Bill Paperstergiadis, president of the Greek community of Melbourne, and George Menidis, director of the Greek Centre and Lonsdale Street Festival. As we said then: Zito Ellaga Zito Australia Aito Melbourni.