The St. Spyridon Grecian Festival was the first ethnic festival of its kind in New England and remains one of the largest with over 25,000 attendees. The “architect” of the Festival was Father George Stephanides of Blessed Memory. Prior to arriving in Worcester in 1974, Father George witnessed the first Greek Festivals in the country as a priest in California. Our Festival was modeled after the Oakland Greek Festival, which first took place at the Oakland Civic Center in 1972.

When Father George first arrived to the Parish and discussed the possibility of running a large Festival, he was met with much skepticism. To prove that a large scale Festival could do well, Father George led the running of a small food fair in the summer of 1975. With the success of the food fair, Father George immediately set to organizing a full scale Greek Festival for the summer of 1976 to coincide with the Nation’s Bicentennial, 60th year of the community and 25th anniversary of the building of Saint Spyridon Church.

A committee was formed and began preparing for the Festival in the Fall of 1975. The committee originally attempted to stage the Festival indoors at the Worcester Memorial Auditorium, but due to the lack of kitchen facilities a decision was made to run the Festival on church grounds utilizing a tent.
When parishioners at the early meetings saw a budget with expenses in the tens of thousands, there was disbelief, but Father George was insistent in his approach and based upon what he had seen in California assured the doubters. The question of whether the Festival would be a success was answered early on. It was estimated that 20,000 people attended the first Festival.

The goals developed for the first Festival by Father George and the Committee carry on to this day:
1. Bring the Parish together.
2. Outreach to the Community.
3. Educate the Worcester community about Greek Culture and the Orthodox Faith.
4. Financial Success.
The Grecian Festival continues to be the window through which Worcester sees the Greek community; our religion, culture, and customs.