Living Traditions Folk Ensemble is one of the groups performing at the Simply Slavic Heritage Festival, which moves to the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre this year.

Simply Slavic Heritage Festival moves to a new location for 2024 while continuing to celebrate the cultures of the Slavic immigrants who settled in the Mahoning Valley.

In recent years, the festival was set up on downtown Youngstown’s East Federal Street, the same street where an explosion May 28 caused significant damage at Realty Tower, and where concerns led to additional evacuations ordered this week.

“The minute everything came down, we were immediately concerned,” said Aundrea Cika Heschmeyer, one of the festival’s organizers.

Shifting further east on Federal Street wasn’t an option. Dave Terpak, senior projects manager at 42 Events Productions, serves on the Simply Slavic board and regularly works with JAC Live and JAC Management Group on events at the Covelli Centre and Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre.

“They suggested to him, ‘What if we help you relocate it?'” Heschmeyer said. “We were quite blessed with the outreach we received from JAC.”

Even that offer came with some complications. The initial thought was to use Wean Park, where tents and vendors could set up on the grounds, similar to the Summer Festival of the Arts.

“We charge admission, so it’s not like Festival of the Arts, which is an open air festival. We’re admission-driven,” she said. “Fencing all of Wean Park doesn’t make sense. We also serve alcohol, and you need a fence for that.”

That’s when talk shifted to Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre. Not only does the venue already have fencing, but it has a large permanent stage that Simply Slavic’s entertainers could use.

“This is a big difference for us,” Heschmeyer said. “Some of our people went on Saturday night to see the space in use (for the Australian Pink Floyd Show concert) and left even more excited about the concept.”

The new location will accommodate the festival food vendors, ethnic heritage tents and marketplace on the paved areas at the top and bottom of the graded slope for the venue’s lawn seating. Entertainment will be featured on the amphitheater’s main stage, and attendees are encouraged to bring blankets or lawn chairs to watch the performers.

The festival opens on Friday with its Parade of Nations and the tapping of the inaugural keg of Rodina, a Czech-style lager created by Modern Methods Brewing Company specifically for the festival. They also will be selling Rodina T-shirts, beer mugs and koozies this year.

Heschmeyer said attendees also will find a wider selection of Eastern European beers. Those beers had been harder to get since the COVID-19 pandemic, but whatever supply chain problems existed the last couple of years seem to have been corrected. They will be joined by wines from Slovenia, Polish vodkas and brandy from Bosnia and Croatia.

Food vendors also will be serving ethnic favorites from the modern European nations that have majority Slavic populations – Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Saturday’s festivities kick off with a parade featuring Youngstown polka legend as grand marshal.

“This is only the second year we’ve done a grand marshal, and we did it because the people who were selected were at a stage in their careers that they truly deserved to be honored,” she said. “Del is retired, he has played the festival almost since year one. He’s beloved in Youngstown and he’s a polka hero, so it’s perfect for us.

“Father (Joseph) Rudjak is going to do the tribute, so the current standing grand marshal will be back to pass the torch … pass the pierogi.”

The entertainment lineup includes many past favorites, such as the Chardon Polka Band on Friday and Harmonia, which will play on the main stage Saturday and lead the Vatra, a bonfire and jam session to celebrate the arrival of summer, that closes the festival each year.

New this year is Jody Maddie’s Up Town Sound.

“Up Town Sound is the first Polish polka band ever to play at Simply Slavic,” Heschmeyer said. “Polish polka is totally different; it’s a different rhythm. Having been brought up as a Polish polka dancer from the time I learned on my dad’s shoes in the kitchen, we’re beside ourselves to get a Polish polka band on Saturday night.”

If you go …

WHAT: Simply Slavic Heritage Festival

WHEN: 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and noon to midnight Saturday

WHERE: Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre, 201 S. Phelps St., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Admission is $5 with children ages 12 and younger admitted free. For more information go to www.simplyslavic.org

Friday

5 p.m. — Od Srca Tamburitzans

6 p.m. — Opening ceremony with Parade of Nations, tapping of inaugural keg of Modern Methods Brewing Company’s Rodina Lager and Community Maypole Dance

7 and 9 p.m. — Mikey Dee Tamburica Stars

8 and 10 p.m — Chardon Polka Band

Saturday

12:15 p.m. — Parade, opening ceremony and food blessing

1 p.m. — The Zaps

1:50 p.m. — The Zolas

2:55 p.m. — Rex Taneri Orchestra

3:55 p.m. — Living Traditions Folk Ensemble

4:45 p.m. — St. Nicholas Russian Dancers

6:15 and 8:15 p.m. — Harmonia

7:15 and 9:15 p.m. — Jody Maddie’s Up Town Sound

10 p.m. — Vatra Lighting Ceremony and music by Harmonia & Friends

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