One of the things I decided to do this year is to try to get to as many events and festivals as possible in downtown Greenville. There is always so much going on especially in the summer! So this year was the first year we were able to go to the Greenville Greek Festival! I’m glad we did!
The festival takes place on the grounds of Saint George Greek Orthodox Church located at 406 N. Academy St., Greenville, SC. It was a cloudy day for us on Saturday but the rain held off all day and the crowds were good.
It costs $3 per person to get into the Greek Festival. There was of course lots of amazing Greek food available for purchase. There was music and dance as well. The dances were on a schedule and various age groups would perform throughout the day.
We had an opportunity to also go see inside the church. I had never been in there before. In the lower level of the church, they had their icons on display. Those were beautiful and they had explainations of Greek Orthodox and church history in relation to the Catholic Church and protestantism. We then went upstairs to see the main church and it was gorgeous. I have one picture of it below.
We’ll go back again. The one thing we did not take in was were all the vendors were. I would have liked to have seen that but will do that next years.
Just have to run a plug for my Catholic parish here in the Upstate of South Carolina. Prince of Peace was recently named the “Best Place of Worship in the Upstate for 2022.” On the Prince of Peace Facebook page, the church published the following…
“We are deeply moved and profoundly grateful to have learned that Prince of Peace Catholic Church was named the 🏆 2022 Best Place of Worship in the Upstate 🏆 in the annual contest hosted by the Greenville News and representing over 40,000 participants. Our parish was up against solid competition across a diverse group of denominations and non-denominational churches in the area! This award belongs to every member of our parish and school community for the way in which they live their faith pursuing sainthood, welcome and serve others, and spread goodwill as Catholics in the Upstate. Thank you to each one of you who voted!
“Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to Him. That is all the doing you have to worry about.” – St. Jane Frances de Chantal”
We have found Peace of Peace to be a wonderful community and an event better place to worship!
TEDxGreenville has released its list of exciting speakers coming to Greenville on March 28, 2020 for a day of what should be inspiring, motivating and educational TedTalks.
The event will be held at the Greenville One Center. The theme is called “Brain Candy.” The event is being organized by Russell Stall. You can view many of the TEDxGreenville presentations on YouTube.
Below is what looks to be the most popular presentation ever from TEDxGreenville with an incredible 5 million views on YouTube. It was a talk given by Cynthia Thurlow on intermittent fasting at last year’s event.
Tickets go on sale later this month for TEDxGreenville 2020 slated for March 28, 2020.
There’s a wonderful surprise that awaits you at the Greenville Municipal Airport – GMU. There is a children’s park at the Greenville airport called Runway Park at GMU. It’s terrific! It’s tucked away in an old warehouse park but don’t let that discourage you. It looks like there’s lots of redevelopment going on in that area and you go by the very modern looking Humane Society building.
We went there for a visit as our daughter and granddaughter were in town. It was a cold Saturday morning in Greenville but the sun was starting to poke through after a couple of days of rain. We were there about 9:30am on Saturday so the plane traffic was quite. A good sized private jet had just landed and we saw 5 or 6 other Cessnas take off and land. Our granddaughter is 20 months so a little on the young side for the planes to capture too much of her attention. I would think kids 3-8 or 9 years old would absolutely love it!
There are a few climbing gyms for kids, plus a swing set that has some swings for bigger kids plus a swinging bucket for toddlers. There is also a pavilion available for various parties. Reservations are required I believe. As you walk in to the park from the gated entrance there is a very cut runway complete with strips and numbers to make it look like a real run way. According to the official web page for the park, it’s about 1.3 acres and there is a nice paved path that runs along the perimeter of the park. There are nice comfortable benches along the way as well. But the thing I liked the best was the many stations along the way with colorful boards designed to educate children and adults about aviation and the history and importance of GMU. It was really well done.
We will certainly come back again especially once the weather improves. I’d like to also make a point to come back when the Runway Cafe is open.
This is a much belated post but I would be remiss not to comment on the incredible Greenville Poinsettia Christmas Parade in downtown Greenville on Main Street.
Thousands showed up for this year’s event. The weather was phenomenal – about 55 degrees and no rain. Last year was not so nice as it rained the entire time. But this year was one of the record books! It was wonderful to hear from so many of the high school marching bands as well as see floats from many businesses, service providers, news media and local politicians…of course Santa brought up the rear.
The crowds were huge and it’s always amazing how friendly and calm the crowds are in downtown Greenville at events like this. The other thing to note about heading to events like this in Greenville is that there always seems to be ample parking. There are many large, public parking ramps scattered throughout downtown. We had no problem finding a ramp within easy walking distance to main street.
Enjoy the photos!
This was a fabulous festival and something that will remain on our list of things to do each fall. Fall For Greenville saw thousands show up for the outstanding food venues, live music and rides. The event took place mostly up and down Main Street and some side streets adjacent to Main. 40 local restaurants had food booths and it was so great to be able to sample so many different foods from various restaurants. We found the prices to be very fair and not jacked up like it so often the case at other festivals and fairs we’ve been to in the past.
Just a heads up if you’re in a crush of people and it feels like you aren’t going anywhere…you probably are in line for a food venue! Also, be sure to get your tickets right away when you get in there. I think we found only one other ticket center once we started walking down Main Street. We didn’t go all the way to Falls Park but I suspect there was yet another ticket booth near there as well. Plan on spending $10 to park your car. We were a party of four – my wife, my 13 and 14 year old sons and we did just fine with $50 worth of tickets but I would say if you are a family of four, you might easily spend $70-$80 especially is you have some drinks. It was a fabulous festival and we will be back next year!
