On June 24th through 26th, the annual Jersey Shore Greek Festival is being held at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Ocean Township. It is expected that over 8,000 people will be in attendance. For it’s fourth time, the festival will be held in Ocean on West Park Avenue;, however, the festival started much earlier in Asbury Park, where the St. George congregation originated from. The beginning of the congregation dates back to the 1920s, while records display that the first St. George festival was held in 1975. The current upcoming festival will consist of traditional Greek food, music and dancing; Greek dance will be performed by the church’s award-winning dancers. Highly anticipated, homemade Greek pastries, such as baklava, loukoumades and kataifi will be for sale. The preparation that goes into making these pastries has already been started by the church women, as the process is time-consuming. In additions to the Greek eats, there will be booths selling alcohol and traditional Greek kafeneio-styled coffee. For the younger crowd, there will be carnival gamesand rides. Church tours will also be available to visitors interested in becoming educated about Greek Orthodox religion and what the inside of the church itself looks like. Free parking will be offered at the Ocean Township High School and Intermediate School with shuttle transportation. The congregation is excited to open its doors to anyone eager for a taste of all that Greek culture has in store.