Sat 2/10 @ 10-11:30AM
A little more than a decade ago, members of Cleveland’s Slovenian community decided they wanted to bring more attention to the city’s rich Slovenian heritage and its large Slovenian community. So it was that in 2013, they hosted the first Kurentovanje festival, taking place at the National Slovenian Home on St. Clair and East 65th. Modeled on an event in the Slovenian city of Ptuj that attracts thousands of tourists, the festival revolves around furry-suited “kurenti” who ring giant bells to chase away the winter.
That festival, which will be celebrating its 12th year this year (legit: it got its 2020 festival in under the wire before the pandemic), has grown from a small, neighborhood effort to a popular event that lines St. Clair for the parade and packs the Slovenian home and its surroundings for an afternoon of food, drink, music, dancing, a vendor village, kids’ activities and bocce. It’s also expanded to include a week of cultural activities leading up to the main event.
In recent years, festival day has started at 9am, when registration starts in the front lobby of the Slovenian Home for the Kurent Dash 5K, which steps off at 10am. (You can register in advance here.) That’s also when the doors open at the Slovenian Home, with rock band LoConti kicking off the musical entertainment on the ballroom stage from 11am-1pm, and kids’ activities (which continue all day with crafts, painting and sing-alongs) on the lower level. Kids can make colorful headdresses to wear outside when the parade steps off at noon.
The parade, which departs from St. Martin de Porres at East 62nd and Lausche, features local businesses or organizations, ethnic dance groups, marching bands, a float with a polka band and an ever-increasing number of kurents who run up and down the street greeting the crowd and posing for selfies. Look for this year’s queen, 95-year-old Ann Gabrosek whose late husband was Slovenian and who has remained an active part of the Cleveland Slovenian community for decades.
Back at the Slovenian Home, where the parade ends up, there’ll be four stages of music and other entertainment including the ballroom stage, a stage downstairs in the kids’ area, a club stage and a tent behind the Slovenian Home (the event spills outdoors with food available on a side patio as well as inside). As usual the entertaining Chardon Polka Band, with its polka versions of pop and rock hits, will be on hand back in the tent stage, with the Garrett Tatano Band on the lower level, cover band the Sellouts in the Club Room, and ethnic dance troupes performing on the ballroom stage.
Kurentovanje winds down at 5pm with the Pokop Pusta (Closing Ceremony) outside by the fire pits, where an effigy is burned and buried, signifying the end of the festival. The Kurenti unmask and place black streamers in the coffin to be burned. They explain, “As this happens, control of the City of Cleveland is given back to the established government. After the burning, the ashes will later be symbolically committed to the Cuyahoga River. The persecution of winter ends, and we wait for spring.”
The festival is extremely family-friendly, free and open to everyone — all races, ethnicities and what have you.
Get more information and a full schedule of events here.
Cleveland, OH 44103