St. George Festival brings Middle Eastern food, fun to Fishers

FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) — The 24th annual St. George Festival is coming up Friday through Sunday.

The festival will include great ethnic cuisines, live music, dancing, interesting vendor booths, a children’s carnival, and church tours that will explain the Byzantine architecture and iconography painted by a world renowned team of iconographers from Greece.

Enass Khazal, George Khazal and Deacon, all of the St. George Festival, joined “Indy Style” on Thursday to show how they prepare some of their traditional dishes.

About the St. George Festival

The St. George Festival started 23 years ago at our old church on 4020 N. 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. Initially the festival was called the Middle Eastern Festival; the name was changed after a few years to the St. George Festival.

The purpose of the St. George 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 third weekend of September. It starts on Friday afternoon and ends in the late afternoon of Sunday. The festival attracts over 6,000 spectators.

The festival has food booths, featuring foods including falafel, kibbe, hummus, gyros, kabab, lamb shank, honey balls and other sweets from the Middle East.

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. 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.

Times: Friday: 5-10 p.m.; Saturday: 1-10 p.m.; and Sunday: 1-5 p.m.

Where: St. George Orthodox Christian Church, 10748 E. 116th Street, Fishers 46037.