Heading to the Antipodes Festival on Lonsdale Street? What to eat, from souvlaki to loukoumades, where to shop, and an easy Greek spread to cook at home.
Every summer the Antipodes Festival closes Lonsdale Street to traffic, and the smell of charcoal-grilled lamb drifts across the city. The 2027 festival is set for Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 February, and if you love Greek street food it's the best weekend of the year to be in the CBD.
This guide covers what the festival is, what to eat once you're there, where to shop in the Greek precinct afterwards, and a simple Greek spread you can cook at home when the weekend is over and you're still craving it.
What the Antipodes Festival is
The festival is run by the Greek Community of Melbourne, and it began in 1987 as a small community gathering. It has since grown into one of the city's biggest street parties. It's free to get in, and over the weekend Lonsdale Street between Swanston and Exhibition Streets fills with food stalls, market stalls, dancing, live Greek music and cooking demonstrations from Greek chefs.
The location matters. This stretch of Lonsdale Street has been the heart of Greek Melbourne for generations, and the Greek Community of Melbourne still has its home here, among Greek cafes, restaurants and pastry shops. Melbourne has one of the largest Greek communities anywhere outside Greece, and the festival is where that history spills out onto the road for everyone else to enjoy.
The food traditions behind the stalls
Greek street food comes from a culture of eating outdoors, sharing plates and cooking over fire. Much of it started as cheap, filling food sold to workers, which is why it suits a festival so well. You eat it standing up, with your hands, and it's built on a short list of ingredients: good olive oil, lemon, oregano, garlic, yoghurt, feta and bread.
Season has a lot to do with it too. Greek cooks lean on whatever is ripe, so a summer festival means tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs at their best. That's why a simple horiatiki salad (the "village salad" of tomato, cucumber, red onion, olives and a slab of feta) tastes so right on a hot February day.
What to eat at the Antipodes Festival
Come hungry and pace yourself. The trick is to share, so you can try more without slowing down by 2pm.
Souvlaki and gyros
Souvlaki means small skewers of meat, usually pork, chicken or lamb, marinated in lemon, olive oil and oregano and grilled over charcoal. Gyros is meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie and shaved off in thin slices. At the festival you'll mostly get either one wrapped in a warm pita with tomato, onion, chips and tzatziki. Ask for extra tzatziki. It's yoghurt, grated cucumber, garlic and a little dill or mint, and it's the cool part of every bite.
Loukoumades
These are small puffs of yeasted dough fried until golden, then soaked in honey syrup and finished with cinnamon and often crushed walnuts. They should be crisp on the outside and light inside. Eat them straight away, while they're hot, and look for the stall with the longest queue, because a fast turnover means fresh oil and fresh dough.
Spanakopita and other pies
Spanakopita is a filo pie of spinach, feta, spring onion and dill. You'll also see tiropita, the cheese version, and sometimes bougatsa, a semolina custard in filo dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon. Pies are the easiest thing to carry home for later.
Lamb on the spit and the rest
Whole lamb turning over coals is part of the festival scene. Try grilled halloumi with lemon, and a small cup of Greek coffee, which is boiled in a briki and served thick with the grounds settled at the bottom. Don't drink the last sip.
Where to eat and shop in the Greek precinct
Lonsdale Street is worth a visit on any ordinary week too. On a quiet day you can sit down properly at one of the Greek cafes, pick up pastries for the office, and browse for olive oil, dried oregano on the stalk, Greek honey, mahlepi and mastic (the two spices that make Greek Easter bread smell the way it does) and good feta sold from the brine.
If you want a bigger Greek shop, Oakleigh in the south-east is the other Greek hub in Melbourne, with delis, bakeries and cafes clustered around the mall. For filo, a large supermarket is fine, but specialist delis often stock thicker "country" filo, which is easier to handle for beginners.
While not many greek shops in the city as in the past however we still have few great coffees and cafe or restaurant at the greek city location.
Cook a Greek street food spread at home
The easiest way to bring the festival home is a souvlaki night. It's quick, it feeds a crowd and almost everything can be done ahead. Marinate cubes of pork shoulder or chicken thigh for at least two hours in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, dried oregano, salt and pepper. Thread onto skewers (soak wooden ones in water first so they don't burn) and grill over high heat, turning every couple of minutes, until charred at the edges and just cooked through.
While the skewers rest, warm pita bread on the grill for a few seconds a side. Set everything out on the table and let people build their own. Here's what you need:
- 1 kg pork shoulder or chicken thigh, cut into 3 cm cubes
- Lemons, garlic, dried Greek oregano and good olive oil
- 500 g thick Greek yoghurt and 1 Lebanese cucumber for tzatziki
- Tomatoes, red onion, Kalamata olives and a block of feta for the salad
- Pita breads and a bag of frozen chips if you want the full festival effect
For tzatziki, grate the cucumber, squeeze out as much water as you can in a clean tea towel, then mix it through the yoghurt with crushed garlic, salt, a splash of olive oil and chopped dill. Squeezing the cucumber is the step most people skip, and it's the difference between thick tzatziki and a watery puddle on your plate.
A few tips for festival weekend
Catch public transport. Lonsdale Street is closed to cars over the weekend, and Melbourne Central and Parliament stations are both a short walk away. Go early on Saturday if you want to eat without queues, and come back in the evening if you're there for the music and dancing. Bring a hat and water, because late February in Melbourne can be properly hot, and wear shoes you can dance in. Someone will pull you into a circle sooner or later.
Visit Lonsdale Street with Otao Kitchen
We can organise a visit to Lonsdale Street's Greek precinct for your group as part of a cooking experience at Otao Kitchen. To keep things comfortable for shoppers and fair to the traders, each visit is capped at 20 people. Larger groups are very welcome: we run rolling visits, so no more than 20 of your group are there at a time.
See our Melbourne Market Cooking Experience →
Learn to cook Greek food with us
If the festival leaves you wanting more than a souvlaki night, come and cook with us in Abbotsford. Our Greek Cooking Masterclass is three hours, fully hands-on, and finishes with everyone sitting down together to eat what they've made. You'll get your hands into filo, learn how to balance a marinade and see why a little patience with olive oil and lemon goes a long way. We cater for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergy needs with 48 hours' notice.
