July 9, 2021

After careful deliberation, the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church of Buffalo is announcing that the 2021 Buffalo Greekfest will not be held this year. Originally scheduled to be held June 4^th – 6^th, the church had sought to hold the festival in late August or early September 2021. However, current and anticipated future COVID-related restrictions do not enable us to make this event viable for 2021.

Because of the current social distancing restrictions in place and the small footprint of the festival site, it became abundantly clear that we would only be able to hold the festival using fully-vaccinated volunteers and could only permit fully-vaccinated individuals to attend. The church relies to a great extent on the older youth of the Parish to serve as volunteers and entertainers, many of whom are not currently vaccinated. We also realize that many families with children who enjoy attending our festival each year would be prevented from doing so because of the lag in youth vaccinations. Additionally, labor unavailability and various food product and other supply shortages contributed to our decision to cancel.

We are extremely hopeful that the effectiveness of the current mass vaccination efforts, coupled with the lifting of social distancing and gathering restrictions for all people by next Summer, will permit a safe and more enjoyable environment for this annual event. We look forward to opening our doors in June 2022 to welcome the Buffalo community so they may enjoy our warm Greek hospitality as well as learn about our beautiful Orthodox Christian faith.

All future announcements regarding the 2022 Greek Festival will be posted on the church’s webpage (www.greekorthodoxchurchbuffalo.org), Facebook page (@gocabny), and the Buffalo Greekfest website (www.buffalogreekfest.org) as soon as they become available.

Rev. Dr. Christos Christakis
Presiding Priest

Dr. William Frye
Parish Council President

Mr. Milton Koutsandreas
2021 Greekfest Chairman