Soccer grudge match, international tour, headline GleNTi’s 2021 return

A world concert tour, a Darwin football grudge match and a 200-year anniversary will all be a part of what promises to be the biggest GleNTi ever this year.

A WORLD concert tour, a Darwin football grudge match and a 200-year anniversary will be a part of what promises to be the biggest GleNTi ever this year.

Celebrations are scheduled to start a week out from the GleNTi festival, as they have for the past five years, with the launch of GleNTi in Raintree Park on June 5.

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Fierce Football NT rivals and Grecian-based clubs Darwin Olympic and Hellenic will play for match points in the first ever GleNTi Cup on Tuesday June 8, leading into the festival with the winners to be crowned and presented on GleNTi weekend.

Greek Orthodox Community of the NT president Nick Poniris said the Greek culture would be on show through the sporting rivalry.

“All sports and athletics is (a big part of the Greek culture) so it’s really important for us to have two Greek teams here and to have something that they can play towards every year and make it really a worthwhile competition in terms of that particular match,” he said.

“It’d be like a State of Origin I guess but on the Greek version of the local soccer in Darwin.”

The inclusion of a concert on Wednesday June 9 with international Greek singer Dimitris Basis would also put Darwin on the map as part of the global tour.

“The concert is to showcase the Greek Independence a 200-year evolution of the Greek Independence … Dimitris Basis is going to be the singer who’s performing them all,” Mr Poniris said.

“Our GleNTi band is a top notch group of musicians that we get together each year, these are the same musicians that these international performers choose as their performers, their musicians so we’ve got the best performance in the country coming out to Darwin.

“This is a concert series that’s sanctioned by the Greek-Hellenic government.”

He said Darwin is effectively on the world stage with this concert series that is being performed around the world as well as in regions in Australia.

“It’s recognised not just here but internationally,” he said.

Mr Poniris said hotel bookings were also filling up fast and furiously, with the Mantra on the Esplanade, Double Tree and Mitchell St Hilton hotels and the Darwin City Hotel all heavily booked among GleNTi visitors.

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“We’ve got a heap booked out, over 500 hotel rooms, just of guests coming,” he said.

“We’re looking for more rooms within the same complexes. If not, then I’ll go to other hotels.

“I’ve got emails saying ‘can you organise day tours and package tours’, for sightseeing and that sort of stuff.”

The 2021 GleNTi celebrations will run from Saturday June 5 until the GleNTi festival on June 12-13.