GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Organizers of the 2020 Grand Rapids Polish Festival have canceled the event this year due to concerns of spreading COVID-19 among attendees, vendors and volunteers.
The Dozynki Polish Harvest Festival is the longest running ethnic festival held in the city of Grand Rapids. The 3-day annual event has been held continuously since 1979 — except in 2006, when city and state budget cuts forced its cancellation, according to a press release from the Polish Heritage Society of Grand Rapids.
The most recent announcement is disappointing, the board said. Board members voted to cancel the event Monday night and informed city officials, food and merchandise vendors, as well as entertainers, on Tuesday.
“We are as disappointed about cancelling the Dozynki festival as everyone else, but we felt it was the socially responsible thing to do,” Society President Adam Porczynski said. “We just couldn’t determine how to hold an event that drew more than 15,000 people last year and ensure that everyone would be safe from spreading COVID-19.”
Porczynski said the society also felt an obligation to food and merchandise vendors, bands and volunteers to inform them as soon as possible of the cancellation so that they could make other arrangements for the 3 days that were scheduled in August. Festival Chairwoman Marilyn Lignell said that most of the dozen vendors she had contacted about the cancellation were expecting the news, since so many other festivals in West Michigan have been cancelled as well.
Given the event's emphasis on interactions between people, it was nearly "impossible to determine best practices in social distancing and disinfecting items such as tokens used to buy food and drinks," Lignell said.
“If we were all to get together in August, we would be hugging and dancing,” she continued. “When we get together, there’s no stopping us — we’re like a very large family.”
The festival is the major fundraiser for the Polish Heritage Society of Grand Rapids, a non-profit organization founded in 1963 to perpetuate and advance the Polish culture that has been a part of the history of metro Grand Rapids. The society also awards scholarships annually to students of Polish descent who attend Aquinas College, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids Community College, Davenport University and other Michigan colleges and universities.
The society has reserved the dates of Aug. 27 through Aug. 29 in 2021 with the city to resume the festival next year. During the past 40 years, the Polish Festival has been showcasing Polish culture and history in West Michigan. Each year, the event featuring a tent that explains the contributions of famous Polish Americans, live music and a large dance area, a children’s tent, and vendors offering Polish cuisine. Other activities during the festival include the paczki eating contest, crowning of the busia queen and a performance by the P.R.C.U.A. Malbork Dance Ensemble, a dance group for youth ages 3-18 that teaches traditional Polish folk dances with authentic garb.
Other large festivals and events have canceled in recent weeks, including the annual National Cherry Festival in Traverse City during the July 4th weekend, the 2020 Grand Haven Coast Guard Festival, the Ionia Free Fair, the Unity Christian Music Festival, the Michigan Irish Music Festival, Muskegon RockStock, Burning Foot, Fruitport's Old Fashioned Days, Tulip Time, B-93 Birthday Bash, Electric Forest and more.
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