The event will feature homemade Mediterranean foods and sweets, live Arabic music featuring the Salah Kurdi Ensemble, as well as belly dancing.
Musician Salah Kurdi There’s a new ethnic festival in town joining the growing list of other fests that spring up each year at this time as the weather gets warmer.
St. Anthony Maronite Catholic Church in Springfield holds its first-ever Lebanese Festival – “Mahrajan” – on Saturday from noon to midnight on the church grounds on Island Pond Road.
“Our goal is to share our heritage with the surrounding communities as many others do, and to make this a yearly event that focuses on our culture, our food, our music and dance,” said co-chair John Ackourey.
The event will feature homemade Mediterranean foods and sweets, live Arabic music featuring the Salah Kurdi Ensemble, as well as belly dancing.
“We’re going to have a large tent set up, so the festival will go on rain or shine,” Ackourey said.
The musical ensemble will begin performing around 4 p.m. and continue throughout the evening, with belly dancing at 5, 7 and 9 p.m. There will also be a DJ spinning music to help keep the atmosphere festive before the Salah Kurdi Ensemble performs.
“There will be plenty of good, family, wholesome fun and we have a variety of activities planned for the kids from a bounce house to face painting, to pony rides and games,” Ackourey said.
Like many ethnic festivals, it is the food that Ackourey expects will be a draw for many. He said visitors can try some of their classic dishes while attending the festival to learn what they like before going out and ordering them in a restaurant.
For pickier eaters, pointing a finger at the kids, Ackourey said the will also be cooking up hamburgers and other treats, as well as offering up fried dough, popcorn, and cotton candy.
“We’ll be making homemade, authentic Lebanese Mediterranean kabobs with your choice of chicken, sirloin or kafta. Kafta is ground meat, hamburger, with parsley, onions and spices added,” said Tanya Elias-Boulos, who is co-chairing the event with Ackourey.
Other Mediterranean delicacies will include spinach and meat pies, grape leaves and desserts such as baklava.
“We’re also going to be making hand-cut French fries. They’re not a Lebanese food per se, but you will find them on the plates of almost everyone I know when we’re enjoying our special Lebanese foods,” said Elias- Boulos.
There will also be a takeout service for those who want to bring some goodies home.
And, for those Catholics attending the event who need to fulfill their Sunday Mass obligation, there will be a church service held at 4:30 p.m.