If you’re a Greek-American, say, between the ages of 16 and 35, there’s a very good chance you already follow The Greekend’ on social media. For those who don’t (yet), that’s Christine Scolinos’ viral event promotion project turned ‘second full-time job’ connecting Greeks of the Diaspora through culture, fashion, travel, and ‘filotimo’.
Although the Greekend launched back in 2019 as a simple way to publicize young adult social events happening across the country for Greek-Americans, the platform’s current iteration is a bit harder to describe. That’s because Christine’s grassroots social media account has grown into a true staple of the Greek community in North America, primarily as a way to stay connected with Hellenism at all times.
Whether it’s through posting witty and humorous content, ingenious event promotion, social media shoutouts highlighting Greeks across the country, or her latest successful endeavor – the Greekend Island Tours that bring young adult Greek-Americans to places like Ios, Santorini, Naxos, Milos, and more fun stops every summer – the Greekend has carved out a celebrated role for itself into the rich fabric of America’s Hellenic social and cultural network.
Naxos is already an established fixture of The Greekend Island Tours, offering participants a nice mix of relaxation, exploration, and nighttime recreation. Photo: Courtesy of Christine Scolinos
“When people come to an event because of the Greekend, or you meet somebody and you see they follow the Greekend in common [with you], there’s something special about that. It is known for bringing people together and building community,” said Scolinos of her platform’s mission.
The rise of The Greekend came at a time of need for the Greek diaspora in North America, when there wasn’t much overlap between East Coast and West Coast Greeks, save for a few Church-led programs like Ionian Village. Scolinos herself is originally from Los Angeles, which, like many other West Coast Greek-American hubs, lacks the geographic concentration or uniformity enjoyed by Greek communities in places like Chicago or New York City.
It resulted in Scolinos missing out on many of the events her East Coast counterparts knew about simply through word-of-mouth. United Greek Americans (UGA), Mistletoe Christmas events in NYC, The Hellenic Initiative (THI), you name it – Scolinos wouldn’t hear about an event until it was too late to attend.
So, she decided to do something about it.
“I was like, there just needs to be one page that has all the Greek events in one spot because I’m trying to chase people down to come to the YAL conference [for example]… and since there wasn’t that, we kind of filled in the gap and created that through just the cycle of events I would know about. People started sending in their [own] events, and it just snowballed from there,” recalled Scolinos.
And snowballed it did. From there, The Greekend grew and kept growing. In those pre-COVID days, there were virtually no other accounts bridging Greek-Americans from coast to coast in the U.S., so Scolinos’ brainchild had a first-mover advantage to fuel its expansion.
The Greekend is one of the diaspora’s finest success stories to emerge from the last 10 years. Photo: Courtesy of Christine Scolinos
Today, it has racked up over 20,000 followers, and if you were to ask any random young Greek-American to think of a few of their favorite posts by the Greekend, you’d likely get a wide range of responses. Scolinos’ personal favorites include a digital series where Greek-Americans can see which Greekend event they are based on their horoscope, a fashion shoot for the brand’s iconic 2025 Hot & Greek tour using Abraham Lincoln as a fashion model, and a spontaneous Greekend diving competition featuring an accidental bellyflop that completely stole the show. And that’s just scratching the surface when it comes to their online content.
Although you can continue to find a comprehensive schedule of upcoming social events on the Greekend’s website, the brand does so much more than that. For the past two summers, the Greekend Island Tours have launched to rapid success, offering young Greek-Americans the opportunity to travel to Greece with fellow Hellenes their age to socialize and visit some of the Cyclades’ premier destinations in under two weeks.
By every conceivable metric, Scolinos’ decision to add destination travel to the Greekend’s in-person offerings has been a smash, albeit one that has resulted in her working 70-80 hours some weeks. But it has certainly paid off – in 2025, during the program’s inaugural trip, 18 young adult Greek-Americans had the time of their lives, and this past summer, the Greekend topped that number with 23 participants. Most were Greeks from the U.S., but some were also from the UK, Canada, and South Africa.
That, in essence, is the real value of The Greekend and its becoming a unique fixture in the Greek diaspora. Going forward, Scolinos plans to launch a nonprofit to facilitate community fundraising, networking events to explore mentorship opportunities between Greek-Americans at different stages in their career, and much, much more – all in the name of advancing and preserving Hellenism from abroad.
“Our community is so special,” concluded Scolinos. “The Greek-American community is something that so many other ethnicities and diaspora communities aspire to be like… And [our] world is so small. You can meet friends here, you can meet friends in Greece, you can meet friends in Australia, South Africa, London, Canada – really wherever. And having that Greek community [from] an event that you went to as the common thread through all of it, it’s so great. It’s amazing.”
