ATHENS-Last year’s inaugural Athens Grease Festival was an experiment planned in a 
few months time that blended Greek themes with fried foods in historic downtown Athens – the one in Alabama.
As organizers sought food and craft vendors, the unanswered question posed by vendors was, “How many people are you expecting?”
“We had no way of knowing because we had never done something like this before,” said Trisha Black, Spirit of Athens director.
Trisha Black
SOA organized the festival after branding consultants for the city flippantly suggested 
using the Greek origin of the city’s name and a play on words with Athens, Grease vs. Athens, Greece, to host a “celebration of all things fried.”
“I was worried we wouldn’t have enough food vendors leading up to our event date,” Black admits. “We wondered if people would get it, that this festival was meant to be quirky while honoring Southern cooking as an art, honoring the Greek origin of our city’s name and saying it is O.K. to splurge occasionally.”
Organizers adopted the slogan, “Eat responsibly the other 364 days of the year,” and waited for the last Saturday in September to see if the toga masses would come.
They did.
Spectators tossed frozen turkeys, ate fried candy corn and sashayed around The Square in togas and cowboy boots. They enjoyed watching a toga flash mob, a burger eating contest and a best toga contest. Based on tickets sold to adults, an estimated 4,500 people attended. After expenses, the festival raised nearly $10,000. Most of that money went to replace lights on the downtown skyline with energy-efficient LED lights.
That success led to SOA deciding to continue the festival annually on the last Saturday in September.
“We are already working on this year’s event, and we will incorporate some of the favorite activities from last year and 
add some new events,” said Festival Chairwoman Betsy Hyman. “It will be like a toga party hoe-down with great food, music and fun games.”
Vendors have already started registering. Among the foods submitted thus far are fried pickle spears, fried bologna sandwiches, fried rib sandwiches and fried sweet potato chips. Sheriff Mike Blakely plans to have an interesting fried dish calls fried calf fries.
How to go: The second annual Athens Grease Festival will be Sept. 28 on The Square from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Cost will be $5 for adults or $4 for toga wearers, $3 for children 3-12 years old or $2 for these young toga wearers, with price including all children’s activities, and free for those 2 and younger. Plans also are being made for a Fun Run and bike ride. To stay updated on further announcements regarding the Athens Grease Festival, go online at www.athensgreasefestival.com.
