Fri 11/24 @ 2PM-midnight
Sat 11/25 @ 1PM
Sat 11/25 @ 5PM-midnight
One of Cleveland’s longest running Thanksgiving traditions is its Thanksgiving Polka Weekend, started nearly six decades ago by the late Cleveland polka radio personality Tony Petkovsec and not hosted by the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame.
This 59th edition will feature two days of music, dancing and eating Slovenian treats with the 2003 Polka Music Awards Show sandwiched in between on Saturday @ 1pm.
Ten Cleveland-Style and Slovenian-Style bands and artists will keep the music going and the dance floor filled, including Linda Lee Brown from Frankenmuth, Detroit’s Polka Classics, Youngstown’s Bill Bevec Band, and Clevelanders Fred Ziwich and Anthony Culkar, Eddie Rodick, and Klancnik and Friends. Diatonic accordion champion Denis Novato, a Slovenian native from Trieste, Italy will be making a rare U.S. appearance, and Nashville accordion player Joey Miskulin, who got his start as a teenager playing with Cleveland-based polka king Frankie Yankovic, will be bringing his familiar face back to town.
Another beloved feature of this weekend, the Polka Mass, celebrated by Father Norm Gajdzinski and Kathy Hlad and Friends, will follow the awards show. Come early (10am) Saturday and take in a potica nut roll baking demonstration. There’ll also be a Polka Pop-Up Shop with polka records and polka-themed gifts.
It all takes place at the Holiday Inn Cleveland South in Independence. For tickets to each event or the entire weekend, call the Polka Hall of Fame at 216-261-FAME or email PolkaShop@aol.com.