St. Demetrios Church Hosts 39th Annual Zorba Festival

By Theodora Antar St. Demetrios Church, located at 31 Brightwood Road in Bristol, will be hosting their 39th Annual Zorba Festival from June 17 to June 19. The event will take place at the church and will have both a drive-thru and stay-in option this year. The church has been a valuable addition to the community for many years. It was built in 1985, two years after the first Zorba festival took place. The Zorba Festival was started in 1983 by the late Anthony Bookas and the parishioners. Anthony Bookas and Angelo Pappas, were very proud of their Greek heritage and went so far as to take out loans on their personal homes to borrow money to start the building of the church. Anthony Book as became the godfather of the church, and he performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the church when it was first created. It was his initial idea to create the Zorba Festival and he served as its first chairperson and ran it for 17 years.
He was a great man who initiated everything with the help of many parishioners and they all sacrificed countless hours of their time to create a Greek Orthodox community within Bristol. His wife Olga is very involved with the church as well. She has been the president of the Parish Council for the last four years and is the first female president of the church. Olga runs the Greek School program at St. Demetrios as well. She hopes to be able to
continue her husband’s legacy as he passed away four years ago.