Darwin GleNTi

It's GleNTi weekend!

Every year the Greek community in Darwin stage a big festival. The Greek word glénti /glendi means celebration. Being in the Northern Territory, this annual Greek jamboree is called the GleNTi. A two-day event in Bicentennial Park on the Esplanade, it's packed with dancing, singing, music, drama and sport. And, of course, food. Personally I have been dreaming of baklava and galaktoboureko all week.

In 2020 the GleNTi was cancelled by COVID (is there an acronym for 'cancelled by COVID' yet? CBC?) so this year's shindig was much anticipated by all. Darwin hotels are booked out months in advance by visitors from down south. Melbourne has one of the largest Greek communities in the world — so there must be a lot of colourful Greek swearing going on as Melburnians have just endured another short lockdown and are not allowed to travel interstate. (CBC!)

The GleNTi week kicked off (sorry) on Tuesday with the inaugural GleNTi Cup. A local derby, Hellenic Athletic Club and Darwin Olympic fielded both women's and men's soccer teams. Not sure who won — sport is all Greek to me. (Okay, I'll stop.)

The sporting events continued this weekend, with the GleNTi Olympic Games in a half-hour slot each day. I bet Tokyo wishes that their Olympic Games were 30 minutes long. However, the GleNTi Olympic Games have a slightly different focus. For example, the competitors in this event had to make as many dolmades as possible in 5 minutes ... the pace was so intense and the excitement level so high that the cameraperson fainted.

In another GleNTi Olympic event, competitors (strictly from a non-Greek background) competed to see how many dolmades they could eat in two minutes. Plenty of activities for the kiddies, too, including a very rhythmic Peter Rabbit.

I loved the dancing. From the tiny tots to the adults, everyone had a chance to perform traditional dances. In one of the dances, the women dance with babies (dolls) and at the culmination of the dance, they throw the 'babies' onto the floor. I know that some Greek folk dances have historical references, but I will have to check the meaning of that one with my Greek colleague next week.

I know you're all waiting for the food. We were too. The queues! (Joke.) The food stalls are set up by different Greek community groups, each with their own specialties. For example, the Kalymnian Brotherhood do octopus. A colleague told me that Greek builders and concreters in Darwin have a special cement mixer that they use to tenderise the 3 tons of octopus they barbecue for the festival. And look, Darwin Olympic and Hellenic AC are still competing in the souva and yiros stakes.

The cakes and honey puffs tent, nay, marquee, is extremely popular. I waited in two queues for my hot honey puffs and my baklava, kataifi and galaktoboureko. Ken, who WILL NOT stand in a queue, waited for me outside. (But he did have a few of my honey puffs.)