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Middle Eastern fest returns next week
Traditional Middle Eastern performances from the 2015 St. George Middle Eastern Food Festival entertain guests. Photo courtesy of John ManosTamara Imam - Managing Editor
managing@insideuab.com
For the 35th year in a row, the Saint George Middle Eastern Food Festival is using food as the main agent for cultural appreciation and understanding.
The festival, hosted by St. George Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, will take place from Thursday, Sept. 8 to Saturday, Sept. 10 at the church on 16th Avenue South. The hours of operation are 10:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. each day.
Members of the parish, mother and son duo Annette and Jeremy Ritchey, are leading this year’s festival as first-year chairmen. The chairmen hope that the festival will continue to bring the Magic City together to celebrate Middle Eastern culture through food and dance.
To Annette Ritchey, the festival is all about “providing our Arabic, our Middle Eastern hospitality to Birmingham.”
The festival boasts somewhere from 8,000 to 10,000 attendees each year, with people sometimes coming from out of state to enjoy the food, music and various vendors. While lines can become long throughout the weekend, Jeremy Ritchey says for festival-goers not to be discouraged.
