The Pan Macedonian Federation of South Australia (PMFSA) is set to celebrate the 2024 Dimitria Festival and say it will be a “bigger and better”.
The 43rd Dimitria Festival will take over the state next month on November 16-17 at the Hellenic Macedonian Cultural Centre, featuring an live music, dancing, food, drinks, sweets and more.
On Wednesday October 9, Konnie Agalianos, the PMFSA president, at a festival launch said the festival will be a success and will present the rich traditions, culture and heritage of Macedonia and Greece.
“We were very happy with how the launch went and the feedback was very positive. Everybody thought it was a wonderful idea and was thinking ‘why had we not done this before?’,” Agalianos told Neos Kosmos.
The Federation’s president expressed her deep pleasure in attracting figures from various community organisations as well as political representatives, saying that they all were very impressed with the launch.
She said that there is excitement over this year’s edition in light of the difficulties imposed on them the last few years, noting last year saw the festival’s return in a tamer manner than what they have planned for 2024.
“Last year was a bit of a trial because it was the first Festival we had really done since COVID-19,” Agalianos said.
“We normally have it an oval with a big production but since COVID we were really unsure of how to broach it and we did not have all the volunteers and were generally unsure as to how receptive people would be to it.”
The organisation’s President said that, in accordance with the restrictions placed by the local council, they created a “village paniyiri” atmosphere at their home location in 2023 that did not feature more than 600 participants at any one time.
“Last year, we followed that guideline and only had roughly 400 at any one time. This year we are going bigger and better,” she said.
“Fortunately, we are able to advertise it and put it on our socials this year without concern of attracting too many people. We are hoping to make it a lot bigger as a result and Saturday night, we are going to bill it as a Taverna night and hoping to get more young people to stay until later.”
Agalianos emphasised the importance of trying to engage youth with the event as they are the means of keeping the event alive and passing it onto the next generation.
“We are really pleased that we have been able to keep it going,” said the Federation’s President as the Festival heads into its 43rd year.
“My father and his generation were the ones that started the event and so I am part of that next generation to keep it going. I really want to be able to attract younger people so that the next generation can come back and make sure they can sustain it in the future.”
She highlighted her belief in achieving their goal, pointing to the interest in their dancing groups as a marker of engagement.
“We are doing that really well through the dance groups because there is a big resurgence of young Greek Australians who love the music and love dancing,” Agalianos said.
“We did notice at last year’s event on the Sunday that when the last dance group finished, they all went home, changed, and then came back. They continued partying until very late into the night which was amazing and fantastic to see so many young people on the dance floor.
She closed by reiterating her hope that the youth’s interest is maintained and that it inspires both them and their parents’ generation to keep the Dimitria Festival going.
The first day of the festival will run from 4pm until late, with the second commencing even earlier from 12pm and finishing late.
