A unique experience had the opportunity to live the past three days the capital of the State of Arizona, Phoenix. More than 3,000 Greeks of the western States of the USA were in Arizona and proved that the younger generations of expats keep in their souls the love for traditional dances and music from their homeland. They confirmed in the best way that the music and dance tradition from Kythnos, Crete, Epirus, Pontus and other regions of the homeland not only do not fade with time, but are transmitted to the younger ones even more strongly.

THE Orthodox Church of America has managed to inspire thousands of young children and teenagers with passion and love for Greek music and dance tradition. The participation of thousands of Greeks and their children in the largest festival of Greek music and dance, the FDF, organized by the Orthodox Church and specifically by the Diocese of San Francisco, proves the statement to be true. FDF is the largest music and dance festival in the USA with Greek color and sound and has been organized for 46 consecutive years.

The three-day events were honored with the presence of Archbishop of America Elpidophoros, who awarded prizes to children and youth who competed as part of the festival. He even stated that he was impressed with the passion and love of children and young people to learn and compete in the traditional dances of the homeland. “Your presence and the struggle you are doing is a living testimony of your Greek Orthodox identity”, he said to all the contestants and invited them to be proud of themselves, just as he is proud of their presence at the Festival. “You all gave your best and you are all champions. With your participation, your loyalty and your love for our country is confirmed”, he said characteristically.

For a whole year, young people have been feverishly preparing in the Orthodox parishes of the western States of the USA, in order to participate in the festival. To prove that the dances and musical traditions of their place, of their ancestors, not only do not fade away but must be kept strong and preserved unchanged in the future. They proudly wear traditional costumes from all corners of Greece and present dances of particular difficulty, singing elaborate traditional songs. In fact, in order to be able to perform the difficult songs, some Orthodox parishes invited organists from Greece to participate: Crete, Macedonia and the Cyclades.

The organizing committee of the FDF announced that, on the occasion of the half-century of the Festival’s life in 2027, they intend to organize a similar event in Athens, in order to enable the new children to present their own perspective on the Greek and dance tradition in the homeland.

With a central theme of “RISE”, the FDF gathers annually one hundred dance groups and choirs from 33 parishes from California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, from the States in which the Diocese of St. Francis, one of the best organized Metropolitans of the Archdiocese of America with rich and important ministries, and the pastor is the Metropolitan of Saint Francis Gerasimos. It is the largest gathering of Greek Orthodox youth in the United States and one of the largest Greek traditional dance festivals in the world.