In 2022, the Association joined the Lonsdale Street Antipodes Festival family, with its first stall at the 34th festival, held on the weekend of 22 -23 October.
The stall was a great success:
- reconnecting members and non-members, many of whom had not seen each other since before the COVID lockdowns
- attracting Arcadians not previously involved with Association
- attracting interest in our events, from both Arcadians and non-Arcadians
- promoting interest in membership
- promoting interest in the Association’s book ‘Children of Pan: Arcadians in Australia’
The highlight was the giant map of Arcadia showing all cities, towns and villages, where visitors excitedly located their hometown. The phrase ‘are you from there too?’ was heard over and over. Young children and teenagers were told by excited parents ‘this is the village where pappou was born’, or ‘this is where yiayia lived with her family before she married’. Many visitors eagerly told stories of places they had visited. One (non-Greek) visitor from Arcadia, NSW was very excited to learn the origins of the name of her place of birth.
