St. George Festival

The St. George Middle Eastern Festival started 27 years ago at our old church on 4020 North Sherman Drive. It originally started as a smorgasbord where the neighbors and community members came and enjoyed a home cooked meal that was prepared by our St. George Ladies with the help of the St. George Men (Knights). In 1995, the smorgasbord was converted to a festival with food, live music, dancing, shops, pastries, and church tours.

The purpose of the St. George Middle Eastern Festival is to celebrate our Faith, Heritage, and Cultural diversity among our parish. It gives our church and the congregation an opportunity to connect with the community and with each other. The festival also provides an opportunity for our church to raise funds to pay a portion of our mortgage each year.

The festival is usually scheduled on the 3^rd weekend of September. It starts on Friday afternoon and ends in the late afternoon of Sunday. Our festival attracts approximately 7,000 visitors.

The festival has food booths, featuring foods like falafel, kibbe, hummus, gyros, kabab, lamb shank, honey balls and other sweets from the Middle East. The festival also has a live band, dancers, vendors, and church tours.

The festival offers opportunities for local businesses to offer sponsorships and to have vendor booths. In addition to the local community getting involved through sponsorships, advertising and vendor booths, the festival preparation and execution requires a coordinated effort of hundreds of volunteers to ensure its success. Our internal and external sponsors play a major role in the festival success as well.

The festival is open to all in the community with no entrance fee.