Nisiotes 2011 Folk Dance & Choral Festival Summary

The FDF festivities started on Thursday evening with the opening ceremony which began with all the dance groups carrying their banners into the large exhibition hall and across the stage. We were lined up in alphabetical order by city so Barry and I got between Fresno and Las Vegas. The rest of the dance group wasn't coming in until Friday so we were it. After the parade of dance groups the Metropolitan has a service with all the priests present. Afterwards he gave a talk and made sure everyone knew that Hawaii was there and told everone to be kind and welcoming to us.

Friday morning the rest of the group arrived exhausted from the long overnight flight. We had breakfast together and then we showed them around the convention center and took them to registration. The competition had started and everyone was in awe of the masses of Greek dancers everywhere. Everyone was finally checked in to the hotel in the late afternoon after many problems with the front desk. They all crashed until the evening when they went to a "Greeks Got Talent" show.

Saturday was another full day of competition. The dancers checked out the competition thoughout the day and in between times went to lunch, held a dance practice and went to spiritual workshops. There was also a Vespers service in the evening as well as the first Glendi where we ran into Fr. Dean, Pres. Valerie and their kids as well as Christina Striebich and Paul Hanna.

Sunday started with Divine Liturgy with the Metropolitan and about 20 priests. After liturgy the competition finished up with the Advanced Seniors. They put the Nisiotes' performance in the middle of all that so the Metropolitan could see us. He stopped the proceedings and announced us before we danced and then brought us back on stage after we danced and introduced us individually to the whole crowd. That evening we had the awards banquet and after that the last Glendi which was held in the Double Tree Hotel. We all flew home the next day exhausted but happy that we are now part of the FDF Ministry.