Every year in October, Knoxville has two different festivals that bring tons of fun and excitement. This year, I went to both, but felt that I wasted some of it on Hola Festival.

   While at the Hola Festival, I didn’t feel like I was surrounded by a heritage, but instead by a chaos. Even thought the Hola Festival was more spread out than Greek Fest, it still felt hectic. Also, most of the people  at the Hola Festival were people that were working or volunteering and not actual spectators.

   Unlike Hola, the Greek Fest only a handful of workers with hundreds of guests. In addition, the workers were actually Greek as opposed to the American workers at the Hispanic heritage event downtown.

   The location of the Greek Fest was intimate. Located at the St. George Greek Orthodox Church, you feel like you were in a different country.

   The Hola Festival is only one day and Greek Fest is three. People party up at Greek Fest on  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and the Hola Festival is only on Saturday. Greek Fest  even has cooking demos for the crowd so that people can make delicious greek pastries at home. Hola Festival just has mulitiple booths set up along Gay Street.

   Both festivals have traditional dance shows, but there are more performances at Greek Fest as well as lessons. I plenty of greek dances, but no Hispanic ones. The Hola Festival did a show about every 30 minutes and did not reach out to the audience for participates.

   I recommend Greek feast. Maybe its because they have 31 years of experience over Hola's 11 years. Or the dance lessons, or the food, or the location. If you only have time for one cultural festival next year, head to St. George Greek Orthodox Church.