American Slovenians Held Their Largest Annual Festival
Americans of Slovenian descent held their largest annual cultural festival this weekend near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The festival featured live music, including polka, presentations of Slovenian cultural heritage, and a sausage contest, according to The Slovenia Times.
The Slovenian Cultural Festival has been held in the United States for 40 consecutive years. It is organized by the Slovene National Benefit Society (S.N.P.J.), an ethnic charitable and social organization for Slovenian immigrants and their descendants in the U.S., which was founded in 1904 primarily to provide immigrants with medical insurance.
The festival takes place in the Enon Valley area near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border, where Slovenian immigrants built their own resort in the 1970s.
Originally, this place was part of the town of North Beaver, which at the time had a ban on the sale of alcohol on Sundays. The Slovenian community separated from the town for several reasons, including obtaining their own liquor license. They established a separate district on 200 acres called S.N.P.J., which today is one of the least populated areas in Pennsylvania with only 15 residents.
S.N.P.J. has many recreational facilities and cultural sites. This area comes alive in the summer, especially for the Slovenian Cultural Festival.
This year, about 20 polka bands performed at the festival. There was also a Slovenian food market, and there were plenty of dances and a beauty contest.
According to an estimate by the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad, there are approximately 300,000 people of Slovenian descent living in the United States, making it the largest Slovenian emigrant community in the world.
The majority of American Slovenians reside in Ohio and Pennsylvania, with Cleveland, Ohio, being home to the largest Slovenian community in the U.S.
It is worth noting that from July 13th to August 5th, in the courtyard of Ljubljana Castle in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, as part of the "Movies under the Stars" series, a selection of the best international and Slovenian films of the current season will be screened.