The Polish American Arts Festival is a weekend of celebrating the rich Polish heritage in Western New York. It is taking place at the Cheektowaga Town Park. The festival starts today at 5pm.
Eddy Dobosiewicz, organizer, says, “The first festival started in 1979 so it’s been 42 years since they stared the event, however, for the last couple of years, obviously we didn’t have it so that’s why this year the excitement is so prevalent in the air. People have been excited about this literally for months because there is so much going on this year that two years to put it together. He goes on to say it’s going to be bigger and better than anything people have ever seen before and I promise you this is probably the biggest ethnic festival of its kind in North America.” Eddy says today at 5pm the festival kicks off with a grand entrance march which looks like Olympic style ceremony.
When asked what she was most excited about, Diane Benczkowski, Cheektowaga Town Supervisor, says, “We haven’t had this festival since 2019, three years everybody has been waiting for this festival, so I am excited about that. I am excited that today, we are having the CEO of Kwik Fill, Red Apple fly in and present us with a check. He is the biggest sponsor we ever had of this Polish American Arts Festival.” She says his name is John Catsimatidis and he and his wife Margo, who is of Polish Russian descent are coming and we couldn’t of had this festival without him sponsoring it for us and we are going to be presented with a check by him and she tells us that she is also excited about some of the things they have going on.
Eddy says they will have two stages. There will be crafts, lectures and demonstrations all weekend long and food offerings. Some of the entertainment includes18-time Grammy winner Jimmy Sturr & his Orchestra, the Krakowiacy Dancers and much more.
