SCHENECTADY — If the aroma of roasting marinated meats didn’t lure people into the enormous white tent outside St. George Greek Orthodox Church Sunday afternoon, then it was the rousing music and dancing children.

The 33rd annual Greek Festival, which started Friday and concluded Sunday at the church on Liberty Street, brought hundreds of people for both baklava and a chance to sample the warmth and friendliness of the tightly-knit Greek community.

“Some people come for the food, some come for the entertainment and stay all day and night,” said Melissa Verrigni, who is Greek by birth but married an Italian. “I love that people feel welcomed; they say they’re Greek for a day.”

Verrigni was baptized at the church, and her three sons have attended since childhood. Her son Anthony, 17, is the drummer in the Prometheus Greek Orchestra, the church band that provided lively tunes all day.

“I’ve been playing for ten years, and basically I’m a rock drummer, but it’s good to expand your musical horizons,” Anthony Verrigni said. “I’m actually starting to listen to a lot of Greek music now.”

Anthony’s father, Tommy Verrigni, was tending bar under the open-air tent, serving up Metaxa, a sweet Greek brandy, and ouzo, a licorice-flavored drink best served on the rocks.

“These aren’t high in alcohol volume, and they’re a drink you sip,” Tommy Verrigni said. “It’s very European to have a small drink with dinner.”

Call it brunch, lunch, supper or dinner, people lined up at several stations for hot foods, including grape leaves stuffed with seasoned ground beef and rice, called dolmades, and mousaka, which is layers of eggplant, potato and ground beef topped with cream sauce.

People arriving with a sweet tooth drooled over a long table of homemade pastries such as kataifi, which is shredded filo dough stuffed with chopped nuts and soaked in honey, and ravani, a sponge cake doused in syrup. But Sunday customers were too late to try the galactobureko, a custard-filled filo, which was sold out by Saturday afternoon.

“If they can’t pronounce it, they just point to it and we serve it up,” Elaine Euripidou said. “The little ones come looking for chocolate, but there’s not much chocolate in Greek food. It’s mostly nuts and honey.”

There was so much syrup and honey coating foods, fingers and tables that bees were hovering trying to get a taste.

French fries and hot dogs were the decidedly American fare selected by Gretchen Roney of Scotia, and her sister Jennifer Clarke, for their children Tyler Roney, 3, Christian Clarke, 3, and McKenna Clarke, 1.

“It’s hard to get them to try new foods,” Gretchen Roney admitted.

The women were accompanied by their parents, Connie and Alan Clarke of Schenectady.

“We’ve lived in Schenectady a long time, and this is the first time we’ve ever been to this festival,” Connie Clarke said. “Everybody’s smiling and having a good time.”

The most commonly requested side order was a napkin. Eating everything, from gyros to stuffed peppers whether using a fork or fingers, was sloppy going.

“There’s just no way to eat this food in front of anyone you want to impress,” Ed Lamont of Schenectady said.

Kate Wilson, 16, and friend Katelyn Desormeaux, 15, scooped up deep fried dough balls rolled in sugar, eating them with tooth picks. The girls were fortifying themselves before their afternoon Greek dance performance.

“That’s why we’re pigging out now,” Wilson said.

Desormeaux said Greek dancing isn’t easily mastered, but it’s always fun to do.

“Dancing is from different parts of the country, the mainland and the islands,” Desormeaux said. “Basically the guys jump and kick and the girls just keep their feet moving.”

Members of the youngest church dance troupe, ages 3 to 5, held hands and danced in circles. The little girls wearing turquoise skirts and boys with vests embroidered with gold trim drew loud support from the audience clapping along with the beat.

Inside the church gymnasium, people studied tables offering Greek candy, honey-infused cherries, jewelry, cookbooks and Greek olive oil soap.

In the church parking lot under bright sunshine, a carnival swing and a few amusements sat quietly without many children waiting to ride as they prefered to eat and dance.