A member of the greek band Alpha Omega doesn't miss a note at the 2009 New Orleans Greek Festival on May 23 in New Orleans. (Richard White/NYT Institute)

A baklava sundae is one of the many desserts served at the 2009 New Orleans Greek Festival on May 23. (Richard White/NYT Institute)

Beneath a mildly blazing sun that threatened retreat at any moment, the Holy Trinity Cathedral’s annual Greek Festival returned to New Orleans on Saturday for its 36th year.

Each year of the event, organizers seek to inspire cultural enrichment by packing the Greek experience into a Memorial Day weekend filled with celebration, traditional Greek folk music, dancing, and, of course, delectable Greek cuisine.

“We’re very well known for our food,” said Gina Psilos, a festival co-chairwoman. “That’s what people come here for.”

Psilos said culinary preparation for the three-day festival begins in January, and intense cooking and baking sessions take place during the entire week before the festival. All of the foods are cooked by parishioners of the church.

“Everything we sell here is Greek-oriented from Greece,” she said. “People bring empty coolers and bags so they can buy cheeses and wines and dips.”

A popular treat was Greek calamari with a New Orleans twist.

“We make it with Cajun spices, a little bit on the hot side, fry it in vegetable oil and sprinkle some feta cheese on it,” said Terry Marathonitis, who was in charge of calamari.

Other fan favorites included a baklava sundae (dough baked with nuts, honey and topped with ice-cream), souvlaki (grilled meat and vegetables served on a stick) and pomegranate daiquiris.

Pomegranate, which dates to mythological times, has long symbolized fertility and luck within the Greek community. Other pomegranate-flavored treats included tea and snowballs for children.

Amid the delicacies a sense of community and spirituality prevailed.

“New Orleans is a wonderful melting pot of many cultures, and we are a part of that,” Psilos said. “We have thousands of years of history and culture, but our heritage and our religion go hand in hand.” A popular attraction for visitors was a tour of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. Along with its rich history – Holy Trinity was the first Greek Orthodox congregation in the Americas, established 145 years ago – the cathedral boasts unique and intricate iconography on the walls and ceiling.

Toward the back of the festival grounds, merchants could be found in the outdoor marketplace, or the “agora,” with imports from the Greek Islands.

M.K. Semos, a photographer originally from Dallas, was selling Greek-inspired art at the festival. She and her husband began participating in the festival after visiting New Orleans to help rebuild the cathedral after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“We love the food, and people really appreciate the artwork,” she said.

A traditional Greek band provided the soundtrack for the festival. In the center of the action, several groups performed traditional Greek folk dancing and encouraged audience participation.

“The Greek dancers live for this stuff all year long,” said Edwin Fleischman, a lawyer who participates in a local dancing troupe. “It depends on the dance – if it’s a simple dance, you’re going to get up to 30 people out there.”

The Greek festivities draw between 25,000 to 30,000 people every year.

New Orleans native Terry Battle and her husband soaked up the cultural experience.

“They’re nice and they’re open; they’re entertaining and they’re educational,” Terry said. “They don’t mind expressing their culture and talking to us about it. The respect for their culture and even the discipline they have for it is great.”

Ginger Grant, another New Orleans native, has been coming to the festival since 1985. “It was very quaint and primitive back then,” she said. “It’s really expanded over the years.”

Grant says that in the past 15 years, she has missed only a couple of festivals.

“I love the food and learning about the culture,” she said. “I would advise more cultures to attend. It’s a really good experience, and more people need to be exposed to it.”