Help create the Gold Coast’s biggest Zorba dance at Xenia Main Beach
There are few things that signal a good Greek celebration quite like the sound of a bouzouki, tables filled with food, napkins swirling overhead and the unmistakable crash of a plate meeting the floor. On Sunday September 13, Xenia Main Beach is turning all of that up a notch, bringing a dose of Greek kefi to the Main Beach Street Festival and inviting the entire Gold Coast along for the ride. The plan? To create one enormous Zorba dance winding its way through the festival before finishing, naturally, with a plate-smashing finale.
If you’ve ever spent an evening at Xenia Main Beach, you’ll know the team doesn’t exactly do subdued. When the music starts, it doesn’t take long before chairs are pushed back, napkins are being swirled enthusiastically above heads and diners who had absolutely no intention of dancing suddenly find themselves shoulder-to-shoulder in a Zorba line.
Except this time, Xenia is taking the party to the street.
As part of the Main Beach Street Festival, Xenia is bringing together live Greek music, dancing, Greek street food and spit-roasted meats for an afternoon dedicated to the kind of joyful, slightly chaotic hospitality Greece does so well. Live bouzouki from Mihali Georgeou will provide the soundtrack, but the centrepiece of the celebration is an ambitious attempt to create the Gold Coast’s biggest Zorba dance.
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At 3:15 pm, the Zorba line will begin at the festival’s main stage. From there, everyone is invited to link up and follow the procession through the festival towards Xenia on Peak Avenue, gathering more willing dancers along the way. You don’t need to know the steps, possess any discernible rhythm or have even attempted a Zorba before. The invitation is open to everyone, and participation is completely free and strongly encouraged.
The idea is rooted in two Greek words that sit at the heart of Xenia. There’s kefi, that infectious sense of joy and high spirits that tends to appear somewhere between the first bite and the dancing, and philoxenia, the Greek tradition of welcoming and showing generosity to others. Both will be in plentiful supply when the procession reaches Xenia, where things will culminate in a suitably rowdy finale of live music and the satisfying smash of plates hitting the ground.
The Main Beach Street Festival runs from 1:00–6:00 pm on Sunday September 13, with the Zorba dance kicking off at 3:15 pm from the main stage. Festival entry and participation in the dance are free, while those wanting a front-row seat to the festivities can book a table at Xenia and watch the action unfold from the heart of it all.
So, limber up, bring your loudest opa! and prepare to wave a napkin like you mean it.
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