Yiasou Greek Festival in Charlotte is latest event canceled during COVID-19 pandemic
Running out of time, and finding no practical way to reschedule to later in the fall, the Yiasou Greek Festival on East Boulevard has been canceled for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event was scheduled for Sept. 10 through 13 at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dilworth. Holy Trinity called off Yiasou Monday in an announcement made on the festival’s website.
The festival, which started in 1978, annually draws about 45,000 visitors over four days for a variety of Greek food, music and dance exhibitions, along with tours of Holy Trinity.
“It was sad to a lot of us for a lot of reasons. In the interest of safety for workers, vendors we had to make the call,” said Peter Thomopoulos, president of Holy Trinity’s parish council.
Thomopoulos said the church considered picking a later date in the fall, but concerns about weather and scheduling conflicts for some vendors, including musicians, made that unworkable.
“Our cutoff date was really late July,” Thomopoulos said of the preparation time necessary for one of Charlotte’s most popular events. “It was pretty self-evident in early June that it wouldn’t be viable to have 45,000 (attending one event) in early September.”
Preparations for the numerous Greek foods — particularly desserts — served at Yiasou start in early June and practices for the Greek dance performances begin in April.
Thomopoulos said the fund-raising lost to this cancellation will be significant, although Holy Trinity has been able to sustain its essential services. Some of the proceeds go to renovations of the church and money is also distributed to some Charlotte area charities.
There have been several other annual festivals in the Charlotte area similarly canceled by the pandemic, including the Charlotte Pride parade and events, and the Renaissance Festival in Huntersville.
Also, the Charlotte Symphony canceled a series of concerts that had been scheduled for August.
N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper recently announced he would not go to Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan until at least Sept. 11. Phase 2 heavily restricts large gatherings within the state.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 11:41 AM.
