43
Ethnic and festive: Oktober event shares tastes and traditions of various cultures
Photo
Autumn Andrews of Petersburg, holds her neice 19 month old Camille Andrews, while receiving a rust belt beer from Rust Belt Brewing Co.'s Brewmaster, Nick Rosich, of Pittsburgh as he stands alongside the brew company's president and youngstown resident, ken blair.
The ethnicity event included Hungarian, Greek, Irish and Hispanic foods.
YOUNGSTOWN — Diversity filled the city’s downtown with the sounds of various music and aroma of foods from various cultures at the Youngstown Oktober Ethnicity Fest.
The Sunday event on the city’s Central Square included Hungarian, Greek, Irish, German and Hispanic food vendors as well as live music from Greek, Latino and Irish bands. There also were area beer vendors at the festival.
“It’s great to have this downtown,” said Linda Durham of Leetonia. “It’s wonderful to have this here.”
Her husband, Jack, added: “It’s pretty nice. We came out for the music and the food.”
The entertainment attracted a group of parents waiting for their children at the nearby Ballet Western Reserve dance studio.
“We heard the music and figured we’d check it out,” said Felicia Armstrong of Austintown. “It’s a good way to spend the afternoon — get something to eat, get something to drink and listen to some music.”
The event occurred after the 35th annual Peace Race’s 10-kilometer run that began in downtown.
The crowd at the ethnicity festival around 3 p.m., four hours after it started, was thin as the temperature dropped and the wind kicked up.
Even so, people there enjoyed the music and food.
“We’re having a great time, but I wish there were more people here,” Jack Durham said. “We need more people down here.”
Attendance was OK at the festival, said Dave Knapp, a manager at O’Donold’s, an Irish restaurant in Austintown that had a food booth there.
“It was all right; it could have been a little busier,” he said of the overall crowd. “I wish they were a little better organized. The tents are all over the place. It’s lacking a sense of fluidity.”
Those at the event had hearty appetites, Knapp said.
The O’Donold’s food booth sold out of shepherd’s pie, and sales for corned beef and cabbage were good, Knapp said.
skolnick@vindy.com