Annual Ukrainian Days Festival

I love this holiday! What is not to like? People is friendly, food is great! This festival makes you proud to be Ukrainian or at least experience this culture. Slava Ukraine!!!

I have a lovely Ukranian friend who is a Ballet dancer and really open minded and kind. So, I thought I should try their festival. The $ 5 donation is a must for them i.e. they give you wrist bands so that nobody misses the ‘donation’. There was a stage with somebody talking (no music) at 3 pm and only 3 or 4 places that had Shish kabob to lamb chops ranging in price from $ 7 to $ 20. We didn’t order anything as 1) the food was over priced 2) they didn’t let us in just to take a look without the donation, and 3) there were flies all over the food and none of them seemed clean. It was too much pain all together. We left in less than 10 minutes and will never ever try going there again.

I think that now that they have decided on a date and have stuck to it, closest to Ukrainian Independence Day August 25^th, the fair has been a success.
Yes, it is a fest catering mainly to the Ukrainian community but all are welcome to attend. After all, the Ukrainians have been in this area for decades and as I recall at West Fest, I don’t remember hearing any Ukrainian or Polish or Spanish spoken for those residents that have been a part of West Town for longer than the newly arrived discoverers of this now trendy neighborhood.
The people that attend this fest are family yes, but the vast majority of these folks are simply related by common ethnic backgrounds and most likely attend the same church or bar.
Americans or anyone else are certainly welcome, your money is green and will be heartily accepted. So, please partake and enjoy the wonderful ethnic dancing, singing and general merriment of the Ukrainian community here in Chicago.
And as the other poster noted the $ 5. admission charge, West Fest charges the same $ 5 admission fee, what’s he squawking about?

Walking into Smith Park, the only thing that led me away from the assumption that I was crashing a reunion was that I paid $ 5 admission. Ukrainian Days, in a nutshell, is a giant family picnic in the park. That is if your family is all Ukrainians.
I’ve been to Ukraine a couple of times before. And the country itself is not that friendly to outsiders. Not that the people are especially surly or anything, but the rate of English being spoken — even in the tourist industry — isn’t very high (except in Kiev). The closest someone can get to this experience in Chicago, besides going to the consulate downtown, is this festival. The amount of English that I heard in the over an hour I was there could best be described as «a smattering.» Even the stage announcements, let alone the acts, were in Ukrainian (completely without English translation) and even the youngest people in the crowd seemed to grasp what was going on. I, however, never quite did.
Thankfully, those in the service sector of this mini-​economy (just trying to keep the analogy going, I mean the people working the booths) spoke enough English to let me know the borscht was vegetarian. And it was good. And it was a $ 1. Sadly, the best festival food I’ve had all summer was a cup of warm borscht (perfect for carrying around the festival). It was just like grandma used to make (even if she was Lithuanian).
The food vendors were all spectacular, in fact. Shokolad brought a large menu, including rich deserts, and two other vendors offered authentic Polish and Ukrainian fare (including the ever tempting vereneky).
Though sadly, the lines for each of the food vendors were enormous and there’s a reason why — there wasn’t much else to do. The few merchandise stalls there were seemed to be an afterthought. And the only interesting one I saw was one selling CDs from the old country.
You know, to listen to if you get tired of sitting around a picnic table and talking to your closest relatives or listening to live Ukrainian folk music from the festival stage. And Heineken and Miller beers were only $ 3. At least that makes it better (or more bearable) than an average family reunion.