Austin Vali — "Better known as Augustinos Valois" — came up with four, four-word reasons why the local Greek Festival gets more and more popular every year.

"We love to dance. We love to sing. We love to eat. We love to laugh," said Vali, one of the organizers of the 27th Annual Greek Festival, which kicked off yesterday at the McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Beach Park.

There was certainly dancing, singing, eating, and laughter — plus wines red, white and retsina; baklava; gyros; souvlaki; galaktoburiko; and other oddly named dining delicacies, and music, music, music.

This year's extravaganza will be the biggest ever, Vali predicted.

"Everybody who comes once returns the next year, and they bring their friends. Last year was number two. This year I think we're over the top. If you want to go to Greece, this is the way to do it for three bucks."

Laughter? Possibly the most seasoned laugh of all belonged to that of the energetic, ever-flirtatious Kaleope "Kelly" Locke, whose laughter is loud, long, spontaneous, genuine and contagious.

"Do you think I'm 65? ... 70? No way! I'm 88! Ha-ha-ha!" said Locke of New Boston, N.H., who lives for three to five months each year in Hawai'i, and who has attended every Greek Festival on O'ahu since festival number one.

Locke was happily hawking Greek religious items at this year's event. Her table featured prayer books to icons to incense. But the best deal of all is Locke herself, who can laugh and spin yarns simultaneously.

"I used to work for a beer company — for 16 years. I projected how many train loads of beer we were going to sell, and all that kind of stuff."

So, are good beer and laughter the secret to a healthy, extended life?

"Yes!" she exclaimed with glee. "Ha-ha-ha!"

The Greek Festival is especially appealing to Elena Sims of Kona on the Big Island, who attends every year with her husband, Fred. It reminds her of growing up on the East Coast and helping her mother make phyllo dough, which was spread out on large, cloth sheets laid over the upstairs beds.

"My job was to run around the and feel the dough and run down to the kitchen and tell my mama which one was ready. And then we'd make these big pans of baklava. It was art to making the dough. And my mom used a sawed-off broom handle to roll it into very thin sheets."

While Locke and Sims are veterans of O'ahu's annual Greek Festival, others were newcomers.

"I'm the new kid on the block," said first-timer Father Demetrius Dogias, pastor of Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Pacific — which serves a congregation of a little more than 100 families in Honolulu, some Greek, some not.

Dogias and his wife, Eletheria "Ellie" Gogias, came out of retirement in Sacramento a couple of months ago because their bishop told them they were needed in Hawai'i.

At 300 pounds, with a full white beard and flowing white hair, Father Gogias was an instant hit with the congregation, especially the youngsters, according to the pastor's wife.

Turns out she's extremely popular, too — possibly because she resembles Mrs. Santa Claus.

"The Santa Claus thing — that's been pretty much a constant wherever we go," she said with a smile, as she dished out a helping of galaktoburiko to another delighted Greek pastry eater.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.