Epiphany of Our Lord has fiery start to festival
Three women dressed up in pierogi costumes to reenact the lighting of the Olympic flame.
Evie Yatchyshyn and George Pesi serve food in the outside food area Friday at the Epiphany of Our Lord Parish Festival in Monessen. Jenn Codeluppi / Mon Valley Independent
Epiphany of Our Lord Parish had an Olympic-style start to its annual festival Friday night.
The festival began with triumphant music and three ladies dressed up in pierogi costumes passing along a torch.
“It’s been a long haul coming, a lot of work but it’s fun you see, we have a good time when we do this and everybody else does, too,” festival board member Evie Yatchyshyn said.
Yatchyshyn joined Kathy Imbrescia and Deb Genemore to perform a reenact- ment of the lighting of the Olympic flame at the beginning of the festival.
Amid laughter and cheers from the crowd, all three passed the torch along before lighting a version of the Olympic cauldron.
The reenactment kicked off the two-day festival that continues today.
As part of the Olympic theme for the festival, flags from countries throughout the world were placed at the festival site.
“I’ve been impressed with the hard work of everybody involved in the planning, it’s a well-oiled machine,” Monsignor James Gaston said. “It’s nice to see people working together for a common cause larger than any one person. It’s for the church but it’s also a community gathering.”
Gaston has only been with the parish for six weeks, and this was his first time being at one of Epiphany’s annual festivals.
“I’m very much enjoying the community, I’m here and in Belle Vernon, everybody has been very friendly and very welcoming and I’m very grateful,” Gaston said.
People from outside the Mon Valley came to check out the Epiphany Festival, and some were loving the musical entertainment.
Chuck Suba of Uniontown came to enjoy Street Level, which performed Friday. Suba is a musician who has performed at similar festivals in the past and believes they’re an important part of the traditional fabric of the state.
“Street fairs, festivals, anything outside like in the summer, are a great Pennsylvania tradition,” Suba said. “I’ve played a million of them in my career, so I’ve always enjoyed them. The people are great and they appreciate your music.”
Suba sees these festivals as important for local organizations and a good way to bring the community together.
“It’s a wonderful thing that they can raise money doing this, everybody gotta have some money coming in, that’s a fact of life,” Suba said.
Jim Blaney, the bass player for Street Level, says they look forward to doing shows at festivals like Epiphany’s.
“We wouldn’t come out if we didn’t enjoy it,” Blaney said. “We enjoy them, we like meeting people and seeing new people who we hope to see somewhere else in the future.”
This is the band’s fourth year at the festival and they will be traveling across western Pennsylvania for the rest of the summer. They also do shows in West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio.
Local residents like Rick Stoioff of Donora love stopping by to check out the food.
“What brings us out here is the good food, the ethnic food, and plus you’re helping a parish, you’re supporting this parish,” Stoioff said. “It’s important fundraising, a lot of the volunteers don’t get the respect they deserve, it’s a lot of hard work and they’re out here doing it for free, so we’re going to come out and help them.”
Today’s event schedule is:
• Kosmix polka band, 3 to 5 p.m.
• Balloon artist, 4 to 6 p.m.
• American Pie Oldies band, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
• Outdoor Mass, 10 p.m. Festival chairperson Robert Sassak said Friday marked a great start to the festival, and he was happy about the big crowd and the sunny weather.
“Everybody has worked hard up to this point, a lot of hours in preparation, it’s nice when you get everybody here, it makes the day go a little bit better,” Sassak said.
Sassak said it’s too early to know next year’s theme, but they will have a wrapup meeting at the end of the month to plan for the dates of next year’s festival.
