Thousands of people gathered at the annual Glendi festival in Manchester this weekend.
The celebration honoring the city?s Greek culture is in its 24th year.
And many in the crowd have attended the event since its start.
They come to dance and see old friends, but as New Hampshire Public Radio Correspondent Rebecca Kaufman reports, there?s one real reason to return: the food.
By 6:30 on Friday evening, the line for the food tent at St. George?s Greek Orthodox Cathedral was a couple hundred deep.
The mix of families, couples, and seniors would wait as long as they had to for a plate of barbequed lamb, a piece of spanokopeta, or a taste of the dolamethes.
George Vios has lived in Manchester 73 years.
He sits in the food tent with his wife finishing up a slice of pastichu-layers of hamburger and noodles with melted cheese on top.
29: it?s the best thing that ever happened to Manchester and New Hampshire, look at the people here, they?re not all Greek, they know a good thing, its camaraderie, we get together, we see each other over a good meal at reasonable prices?
2:19 we get around 40,000 over the weekend, the two busiest days Friday and Saturday, Saturday more so than Friday, I?d say a good 10-15,000 people come through today.
George Copatis is the co-chair for Glendi.
He says the festival is the largest in Manchester.
And it?s the big fundraiser for St. George?s Church.
To feed the masses, Copatis says around 300 older women from the church start cooking in early June.
1:53 we?ve got a majority of people in their senior years, but they?ve done it this volunteer work, its like the love of their life, they?ve done it for 40 years, they did it when it was a bizarre, they?ve done it when it was a Glendi, and they?re still accommodating us?
Track 3:00 noise
Tamam Smith organized the food under the tent.
She said the ladies would arrive as early as 6:30 in the morning and cook until 5:30 in the evening.
1:30 I know they made 148 petas, which is the spanokopeta, I think they made 8,000 of the dolmathes, the stuffed the grapped leaves, and its timed, not only do they come in ahead of time and prepare the mixture, but then they roll, and I can?t reiterate that they are so meticulous in how they roll it, if its not right they do it again
Inside the church?s social hall, women sat behind long tables selling homemade baklava and other Greek pastries.
Track 9 7:24 loucamades, we?re making loucamades, they?re a fried dough?
But the longest line was for the loucoumades.
Martha Kokkinos is the loucoumades chairwomen.
8:18 Pauline, how many did we make last year?
Pauline: 15,000
15,000?hahaha, we made at least 100 pounds of flour, 30 dozen of eggs and all the other secret ingredients we put in to make them taste excellent?and no calories we took them all out?.
The women were not responsible for one area of food preparation: the meat.
1:00 music
Away from the crowd, the men from the church gathered around ?the pit?, holding beer bottles at the otherwise non-alcoholic event.
:36 this is where all the testerone hangs out
Dick Anagnost headed up the lamb roasting team.
:15 this is the barbeque where all the lamb is cooked, we?ll go through about a ton of lamb between noon time today and noon time on Sunday
Anagnost said the pit is where Governor Craig Benson- who attended the event on Friday evening- ate his dinner.
Governor Benson said his wife, Denise, is Greek and helped the women at the church prepare for the weekend.
Track 9
9:45 we come every year, and Denise doesn?t want to leave, she?s probably in the back having some spinach pie right now?.
Benson wasn?t the only politician visiting Glendi.
U.S. Senator Judd Gregg was there shaking peoples? hands.
Manchester Mayor Bob Baines greeted guests.
And several democratic presidential candidates were scheduled to make appearances throughout the weekend.
Track 3 :40 music
Glendi chair George Copatis said others would follow.
2:36 you know obviously greek food is somewhat high in calorie content but then there?s four hours of Greek dancing on Friday and Saturday night so you can burn it off before you leave.
Track 3: music?..1:20??
For NHPR news, I?m RK.
