The Iconic Pittsburgh Folk Festival Returns This August

PHOTO VIA PITTSBURGH MAGAZINE ARCHIVES

Ondrejana Zatek has fond childhood memories of the Pittsburgh Folk Festival, where she spent her time dancing on stage with Hungarians, Slovakians and Lithuanians. The festival, where her parents met folk dancing, happened regularly for 60 years until 2016. After 2019, it stopped altogether due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Years later, Zatek spearheaded an effort to bring it back. 

She campaigned for its return with the board of the folk festival, pointing out how in today’s cultural climate, people are interested in international food and learning about their cultural heritage. 

“So I convinced them that this might be a good year to just give a little taste of what the festival is to an entire new generation,” Zatek says.

They agreed, and A Taste of the Pittsburgh Folk Festival was born. The event will be hosted on Saturday, Aug. 1 at Our Lady of Victory Maronite Catholic Church, with the goal of celebrating the rich and diverse cultures of the people who make up Pittsburgh. 

The festival will have food from all over the globe — Ukrainian pierogies, Eastern European chicken paprikash, Mexican beer and spicy African spaghetti sauce. 

“[We want people to] experience a little bit of taste of not only your heritage, but a taste around the world,” she says. 

The event will also have various cultural dance performances. The ElectroBelly Dance Troupe will put on a performance that blends traditional belly dancing with modern movement and will host a workshop so participants can learn a few moves themselves. Takumi Kato, an award-winning taiko drummer from Japan, will be there to continue his mission of doing a thousand performances in all 50 states. The Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh will don traditional attire while performing their cultural dances, too. 

There will be cooking demonstrations, as well as dance and language lessons. Additionally, the event is family-friendly, and there will be a cultural learning area where children can participate in crafts from over a dozen nationalities. 

“I hope [attendees] find a love for not only their heritage, but [will] understand and accept everybody else’s and how beautiful it is,” she says. “Pittsburgh is a melting pot and they call it that for a reason. We can’t be individuals and stand alone, when you hold hands together and let all these members of their community share their skills and ability with you magic happens.”

A Taste of the Pittsburgh Folk Festival will begin at 11 a.m. and end at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased here; children under the age of 10 get free admission. For information about vendors and for the event schedule, click here.