"Ela
Moré, It's Just Baltimore..."
July 5, 2005
Over the past few weeks, we’ve had occasion to make it up to Baltimore for
a few Greek events, which is the most we’d been to in more than a year. The
relationship between the DC and Baltimore Greek communities has always been an
interesting one, with the traffic primarily, if not paradoxically, flowing from
Baltimore to DC for most events. This is surprising if only for the fact that
Baltimore has a Greektown and DC doesn’t. A Greektown is supposed to easily
provide the two things that you need to make a successful Greek event – people
and venues.
Baltimore Greeks travel as well if not better than any other group of young
adults. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Greek Night on a Saturday or a Third
Thursday, they’ll drive the hour it takes to get down here. At national
events, like Clearwater, there will typically be more people from Baltimore than
from DC. And the contribution that Baltimore has made both in helping organize
and attending the DC YAL Weekend has been invaluable. (Let’s not forget the
fantastic job that Baltimore did in hosting the National YAL Convention in
2003.) But when it comes to everyday sorts of events in Baltimore itself, folks
from DC rarely return the favor and in some instances Baltimore Greeks
themselves won’t even support them.
Last month we went to the Friday night of St. Nicholas’ Greek Festival in
Greektown followed by a Greek Night at Jimmy’s Seafood. While we were
impressed by the turnout of young adults enjoying a unique atmosphere by DC
standards, those in the know complained of a weak turnout. For those of you
haven’t been, imagine cordoning off the end of a street and a parking lot and
turning it into a Greek festival. The closest comparison about two hours south
of DC in what Richmond does with their festival. Later at Jimmy’s Seafood, the
turnout was even more disappointing, which was even more surprising given the
great lead-in not even two miles away and how well Baltimore Greeks are
represented at Greek Nights in DC.
Over the last three weekends, the 1st Annual Baltimore Greek Festival
was held at Johns Hopkins University to reported crowds of only twenty or thirty
Greeks and Philhellenes. Now granted a Greek Film Festival isn’t primarily
marketed towards young adults, so it’s not surprising that there weren’t
many young adults there. But the fact that this event was open to more than just
young adults is what actually makes the reported turnouts even more
disappointing. Maybe the young adult population from Baltimore isn’t large
enough on its own to support your average Greek event in Baltimore? (There are
days in DC where we ask the question of the population here.) But the presence
of a Greektown means, or should mean, that there is a concentration of Greeks of
all ages that would be interested in this type of offering.
Does the existence of a Greektown make Greek young adults from Baltimore take
events in Baltimore for granted? Are Greeks from the DC area intimidated by the
trip to Baltimore in ways that Baltimore Greeks aren’t about a trip to DC?
Regardless of these questions, Baltimore has too much to offer Greek young
adults for it to be ignored. Next time you see an event on the calendar that
takes place in Baltimore, make an effort to check it out. For anyone planning on
having an event in Baltimore, please make sure that it makes it on the Events
Calendar and if it is on a weeknight or a Friday night, that it starts late
enough to make the drive around the Beltway and up 95 realistic and worthwhile
for the DC crowd.
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