Slovak Fest evokes nostalgic memories

By Ed Runyan | August 13, 2012 at 12:04a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

For Betty McDo- nough of Canfield, the Mahoning Valley Slovak Fest at St. Matthias Church on Cornell Avenue on the South Side is a reminder of the music her parents’ generation enjoyed.

“The music is what my mom’s generation always came for — polkas and Slovak folk music,” she said Sunday evening at the festival.

“Growing up, I don’t think we went to a wedding that didn’t have a polka band. It’s what you were used to.”

McDonough said the music the Del Sinchak Band played was giving her that nice, nostalgic feeling she wanted. Hundreds of people turned out Sunday for the one-day event.

For Loretta Ekoniak of Youngstown, a big part of the festival’s attraction is the food.

From tables manned by members of Youngstown’s three Slovak Catholic churches — St. Matthias, SS Cyril & Methodius and Holy Name of Jesus — Slovak food was being purchased and eaten in large quantities.

“If we want haluski, pirogi, stuffed cabbage, this is where we have to go to get them,” Ekoniak said. “People just don’t make it anymore. They don’t know how to make it anymore.”

Ekoniak was among the people who decided seven years ago that Youngstown needed a Slovak festival.

“Seven years ago, we said we had to do something to preserve our heritage.” In those seven years, the one-day festival keeps getting larger and larger. Sunday’s festival, aided by wonderful weather, may have been the largest one yet, Ekoniak said. St. Matthias had a similar festival in earlier times, but it ended about 40 years ago.

Ekoniak says Slovaks were among the melting pot of Europeans who traveled to Youngstown in the early 1900s to work in the steel mills and open shops.

Slovaks used to live in Slovak neighborhoods, and it was easier to keep in touch with the Slovak history and culture, but it’s harder now, McDonough said.

“We are the keepers of the keys” to the Slovak heritage, Sue Summers of West Middlesex Pa., said.

“If we don’t share our heritage with the younger generation, we’ll lose it,” she said. “We had so much ethnicity in Youngstown — the Slovak, the Irish, the Greeks, the Italians.

“I like all the ethnicity and people come to support their ethnic heritage and background — the music, the food, the traditions.”