Antipodes Festival in Lonsdale st by Claudia

Antipodes Festival in Lonsdale has been going for many years. It is the tradition in Melbourne to celebrate 50 years of Greek heritage in Melbourne.

Lonsdale st came alive with Greek food, a food market, games and some stalls. I loved the food market. It was wonderful to hear Phil from Spitiko talking about how to make the perfect baklava. He actually showed us how to roll it which is tricky and fiddly. You have to careful with the filo or otherwise it will break.

The sweets on sale

Cooking class

Greek costume

Rides

The tomato plant at the market

Nutella at the pizza stall

Another stall

Samplings at the market

Materials to make the doll

The doll at the Kids corner

The zorba dance in the streets

I loved the Greek girls and boys doing their dances up on stage. This is a traditional Greek dance that goes back many years. Everyone enjoyed the stomping and one guy clapped.

Greek lemonade

If you were tired from all that shopping and partying, there are two bars which were opened to the public today; the  QATAR lounge and the Barbaresso (Ouzo) bar. This bar was outdoors and there was a DJ playing. The QATAR lounge was more quiet. In there you could order the more expensive wines such as Chardonay and Semillion.

The olives outside the QATAR lounge

The ouzo bar

I tried Greek lemonade ($4) and loukmedes ($7 for 6) for the first time. Loukmedes are sweet little doughnuts with lots and of honey and it was so sickly sweet that I couldn't finish it all. The Greek lemonade came in a small cute bottle. Now I wonder where I can find these in Melbourne, because I want something like this and not like our usual canned drinks as they are waaaay too sweet and carbonated. Maybe I'll just have to be on the hunt for it.

There was halva sampling at the market as well as olives and olive oil. Halva is a sweet Greek dessert full of sugar and cinnamon.

There were other foods on offer such as souvalaki, the potato twists, pizza (who would sell pizza at a Greek festival), spankopita (vegetarian spinach and cheese pie), nuts and various other Greek foods. Don't worry if you are vegetarian the Greeks have a lot of vegetables in their diet, hence there were a few vegetarian stalls.

Many thanks to the City of Melbourne for inviting me and I hope to see you again next year. I had a great time at the festival although it was warm.