New Orleans Greek Fest — Local services in New Orleans

NOTE: first time visitor on last day of the festival. hopefully going earlier would yield a better result, but they shouldn't trickle things down for final day visitors.

OVERALL: meh compared to greek festivals i've attended in other cities, this was definitely middle of the pack very crowded and they ran out of many items no saganaki very little shade on a hot, sunny day in NOLA $10 for adults; kids below a certain age (maybe 12 yo) are free food is NOT a good value

GOOD: free parking on an off-site lot with a shuttle that didn't take long for the wait or the drive; was air conditioned

could have gotten there via bike, scooter, canoe, or kayak

the music was good (see bad)

they had tours of the cathedral (not too often though)

there was food there

BAD: the time of year isn't the best for an outdoor festival with no appreciable shade options; the canal side of the property had sparse trees in some spots, but the majority of the stage area was not shaded at all (very hot on a sunny or overcast day). they did have a very small tent area for those enjoying their food.

couldn't sit around to enjoy the music because of the lack of shade; no seating, you should either bring folding chairs or a blanket

the food wa$ way too expen$ive for what you got; $12 for a normal sized gyro; $5 for a snowball that would cost $1.75 anywhere else (extra fee for 1/2 and 1/2 flavors); $22 got you some lamb and other sides (not a lot of food); $36-40 got you 20 oz of lamb with sides. Pastry items (those that remained) were $1-3 for each individual cookie or item.

the pastry line was crazy long but offered loads of options; just kidding; after getting almost close enough to the serving line, i asked about the cost of the items as the printed menus didn't indicate the prices. they have banners and posters all over the place. would it have killed them to put up a menu board with prices? the lady told me the prices on everything they had left. if you or your family members are allergic to nuts, for example, they're out of luck. the three things out of about 15 items that didn't have walnuts, pistachios, pecans, or almonds were all sold out. so they told me what of the heaps of options they originally had was still on hand. three items. so we resigned ourselves to our fates. only to find we eventually only had two options. did the pastry people tell the crazy long line of this crucial fact? nope. that's not how you do customer service.

no bazaar or greek gift item area; this was a big hit at other festivals i've been to; they had a few t-shirts and memorial prints, but little else other than church items, some to-go food, sponges (natural) and plants.

no saganaki; who does that?!? i love saganaki (fried cheese). it's one of my favorite things to get at a greek or mediterraean restaurant. a festival employee said that not only do they not have it, but they've never had it, and they couldn't see how they could even do it at the festival.

the grill was sold out of stuff by the time we got to the front of the line.

not enough indoor or tent-covered stuff to see/do.

no good way to really see and enjoy the dancing. they also didn't do it too many times throughout the festival day. why? it's stinking hot!!! move the festival date.

you may think that we got there an hour or two before they closed for all the out of stock stuff. nope. the festival had hours and hours left. so we took that hint and left. got greek food elsewhere for cheaper and more reasonable prices. made saganaki at home.

we won't be returning in the future to this...

I'd like to give the Festival a 5-star review, but frankly I was disappointed. It was a hot day and the band didn't seem to have any energy, female singer was adequate but not impressive. Food lines were ridiculously long and slow, dolmades were clearly straight out of a can. There was absolutely NOTHING for younger kids to do. Maybe next year they can set up a few misting fans... The onstage dancers were the highlight of the fest even though they started much later than advertised and only danced a few dances. Maybe next year will be...

The Fest really needs someone else in charge of the beer concessions. Last year they had probably the worst beer I have ever tasted. This year the main beer was a beer that 90% of my beer drinking friends are boycotting because of their choice of a trans-gender dude as their spokesperson. I was told the ran out of the Greek beer yesterday morning. Why can that not be restocked immediately? Let's get the beer situation worked out...