Egyptian Festival to Take Place This Weekend

will host its third-annual Egyptian festival this weekend.

For three days, starting Friday, there will be music, food, festival souvenirs, dance performances and other sorts of family-oriented activities. The festival is an attempt to educate attendees about the Egyptian Coptic community and its culture, as well to raise money for a new church.

“Anyone who has never been before will get a taste of what Egypt is like and see how Christian Egyptians live here in America,” says Sabrina Gad, director of the Egyptian Festival for 2011.

Awareness and education is a huge part of the festival mission. The Coptic Christians are an unknown group to many people, and the organizers want to try to change that. 

“The main purpose of the Egyptian Festival is let people know about the Egyptian Coptic community in the Bay Area,” says Eric Harvey, who is in charge of marketing for the festival. “A lot of people don’t know about this church, which is one of the oldest forms of Christianity in the world.”

The Coptic Church was established in 42 A.D. by Saint Mark in Alexandria, Egypt, and has seven churches in the Bay Area.  

The event will have a wide range of activities, from a more serious guided tour of the church and its history to activities at a sphinx playground for the kids. Traditional musicians and dance performers will showcase an ancient cultural history, while modern musicians like DJ Nile, a local Coptic Christian from the area, will show a more contemporary side of this community.

Vegetarian, meat dishes and desserts from Egypt will be sold to quench the hunger of those who attend. There will also be a raffle that will give the winner the choice of either a 2012 Ford Mustang or $15,000.

Admission to the festival is $1 per person. However, all proceeds from the event are being used for a charitable purpose, which is the building of a new Coptic Church for this growing community.

“The congregation has outgrown our current structure,” Gad says. “We need to build a bigger one.”

The current church fits 200 people at maximum capacity but has a congregation of 200 families, making holiday services a very cramped affair.  

Organizers hope to have at least 5,000 attendees and raise a total of $50,000 during the three days.

The overall , which also includes a two-story Sunday school, will cost around $3 million. The first phase of construction began in 2007 and will be finished next year.

The new church will be on the same lot as the present church.

Breakdown:

When: Friday (5–9 p.m.), Saturday (10 a.m. – 9 p.m.) and Sunday (noon–7 p.m.)

What: Third Annual Egyptian Festival

Where: St. George Coptic Church, 395 West Rincon Ave., Campbell

Highlights: Musical entertainment, traditional Egyptian food and raffle

Fee: $1 admission