Our annual guide to St. Hedwig's Polish Festival, which starts Sept. 24

St. Hedwig’s Polish Festival brings pleasures like polkas and pierogi each year to Wilmington.

Here’s our annual insiders’ guide to the 62nd annual event set for Monday through Saturday at the Wilmington Riverfront.

The details: The festival, on parking areas north of Frawley Stadium, runs 5-10 p.m. Sept. 24-28 and 3-10 p.m. Sept. 29, with lunch available 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sept. 27-28. Admission and parking are free. The Skelly’s Amusements rides and midway opens at 6 p.m. You can pay per ride. A $20 band covers all rides on Tuesday, Sept. 25 or Wednesday, Sept. 26; a $45 mega-band covers all rides every evening. Details: www.polishfestival.net. 

Couple who thought they were married tied the knot again because license lost

First, the food: “Polish people, when you meet for first time, want you to sit down and have something to eat,” said Ed Lipka, a third-generation parishioner of the Roman Catholic Church and a festival volunteer since 1984. “They are extend their culture with their food.” The most popular: pierogi, kielbasa and golabki (Polish for “small pigeon,” Lipka said, but culinarily stuffed cabbage rolls). Kielbasa burgers that debuted last year will return. “A really, really big hit,” he said.

Appleton Catering is again handling most festival food, with recipes from the church, which it also serves. Executive chef Glenn Wootten also credits Cheryl, his wife, who’s 100 percent Polish, and his imported pierogi maker. Festival-goers and catering customers have approved fun versions, like buffalo chicken, Philadelphia cheesesteak, caramel apple and blueberry pierogis. They’re also sold frozen.

New this year are chocolate-raspberry pierogi, Wooten said, extensively tested, with the final choice being chocolate in the dough and raspberry in the filling.

Lipka said he was pleased with Appleton’s fast service. “We rarely had long lines.”

Polish faithful make cookies for St. Hedwig's festival

Parish volunteers are preparing placki (potato pancakes), nalesnicki (fruit-filled crepes), bigos (a stew of veal, pork, beef and sauerkraut) and chrusciki (fried cookies shaped like bowties). Polish beer and baked goods wrap up the menu.

Friends, Poles, countrymen: When you encounter people you know (Sept. 26 is Alumni Night, a pitch to unite old friends and classmates), embrace the classic greetings of Poland. “The men are very firm handshakers, and women are big huggers,” Lipka said. And he offered an expression to better enjoy the festival: “Pomaluszku: That means ‘take it easy.’”

Music and dancing, please: Monday is American night, with Club Phred. The other nights feature mostly polkas: Polka Serenaders on Tuesday, John Stevens’ Doubleshot on Wednesday, TKO on Thursday, the TKO 1994 Reunion Band on Friday and the Golden Tones on Saturday. PKM Polish Dancers will perform on Friday and Saturday.

Souvenirs, too: Eight or nine vendors will sell jewelry, T-shirts and Polish handicrafts.  

Ken Mammarella is a Wilmington freelance writer and editor.