CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Tampa Bay area’s largest annual Greek festival, Clearwater Greek Fest, is back this weekend after a four-year hiatus.

The festival at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Clearwater was put on hold for a couple of years because the church was rebuilding after a 2015 fire. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

Festival organizer John Pantelis is an active member of the church and he is passionate about Greek culture. That’s because his parents and older siblings emigrated from the Greek island of Kalymnos. His wife Kathy’s parents Chris and Joanna Demas are also Greek immigrants.

John and Kathy love to host big family dinners at their home where they often speak Greek to keep the culture alive.

And Greek food served in large portions.

“This is a Pastitsio, the Greek answer to lasagna. We think it’s better though personally, ha, ha, ha,” said John as he was cutting into a pan of the dish.

Pantelis wants to keep his Greek heritage alive.

“It’s something that ties family together and that’s something that we are trying to express here. Just show our culture. How food is a big part of that.”

On Sunday mornings, Pantelis is in the lobby of the church greeting members.

“Just seeing everybody come into church and all worshiping together and over the years, you get to learn about everybody and their backstories. It’s family,” he said.

He is supervising volunteers as they cook huge amounts of food for the festival. He is very excited for the festival being back this weekend.

“It’s been four years since we had a full-blown festival between COVID and the construction of the new church,” he said. “So we are very excited to have everybody back. Like I said, to show off our religion, our culture and our rich heritage.”

The festival will be held Oct. 28 through Oct. 30.