The Wilmington Greek Festival returns Monday.
Two of Delaware’s favorite summer festivals return next week.
The Wilmington Greek Festival is back for its 47th year, offering online ordering and curbside pickup, which proved popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. It starts Monday, June 6 and runs through June 11.
St. Anthony’s Italian Festival starts the next day, Sunday, June 12, and this year will go cashless. Patrons are asked to buy one kind of card for rides and another to spend on food, beverages and vendor sales, but vendors also will accept credit cards. It runs through June 19.
The Greek Festival
Sponsored by Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church at 808 N. Broom St., the festival is designed to create the sights, sounds and aromas of a Greek village. It offers indoor and outdoor dining, along with take-out and pickup, as well as shopping and entertainment.
The site is open from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. each day, and really starts opa opaing in the evening as people crowd the outdoor tables to drink, mingle and down a gyro, souvlaki and kalamari from booths outside as they watch dancers and singers.
The indoor dining room offers the best choices, but a warning to the wise: The choices diminish during the week as fans double down on their favorites. It also offers specials. On Tuesday through Thursday, stuffed peppers and roasted potatoes are available and on Friday, patrons can find baked fish plaki with string beans.
Many of the items can be bought at the festival’s take-out booth on the south side of the property. Food can be ordered on site and carried to a table or out the gate.
Most of the menu is also available for online ordering Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. The system allows you to order, pay and set a pickup time.
Among the selections are: stuffed peppers, ($10); chicken and orzo ($12); Greek salad ($10); 4 stuffed grape leaves, available with seasoned beef or meatless ($7) ; pastichio ($12); pastichio sampler with pastichio, spanakopita, tyropita and meatballs, $20; Moussaka Sampler with moussaka, spanakopita, tiropita and meatballs ($20); moussaka ($12); 4 Keftedees, which are meatballs in sauce, $3; tyropita, which are layers of phyllo dough stuffed with feta cheese ($8); spanakopita, which is layers of phyllo dough stuffed with spinach and feta ($8); rice pudding ($5), pastry variety box, $18.
St. Anthony’s Italian Festival returns June 12, and it’s going cashless.
The Italian Festival
It features all kinds of food, including the church’s own spaghetti sauce; carnival rides for every age; vendors selling all manners of wares, including pastries; and a variety of entertainment.
Restaurants on site will be CaffĂ© Gelato, La Casa Pasta/Chesapeake Inn, and Luigi and Giovanniâs.
Admission is $5 per person. Children under 13 are free, but must be accompanied by an adult. Eight-day passes are being sold in advance for $12 and will be $15 on site.
The festival, which will be held at 901 N. Dupont Street, generally clogs the neighborhoods around it with patrons parking all over. There is also free secure parking at Salesianum School at 1801 N. Broom St., with shuttle bus services from one hour prior to opening through 30 minutes afterward.
The event will open Sunday, June 12, from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Monday, June 16, through Friday, June 17, from 6 p.m. until 10-:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 18 , from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.; and Sunday, June 19, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Festival gift cards and Festival Monday Cards are now available in advance with $25 cards going for $22 and $50 cards going for $42. Buy them here. They will also be available at the festival, but at full price. Both cash and major credit cards can be used to buy them. Both festival cards and credit cards can be used at vendors.
Majestic Midways also is going cashless, requiring the use of Magic Money Cards that may be purchased with major credit cards at kiosks on site. The Festival cards cannot be used to buy the Magic Monday cards.
Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience, including 15 at The News Journal in Delaware.
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