Zabawa Polish Festival
We’ve attended a lot of festivals in the Erie area, but this year we had our first experience at Zabawa Polish Festival! This year (2022) the festival runs from 5 p.m.-10 p.m. on August 26, 12 nnon-10 p.m. on August 27, and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on August 28. This festival has free admission and free parking! In order to get the free parking, you can park at a lot on 34th and Ash at St. Peter & Paul. From there, a shuttle will take you to the festival.
Our kiddos likened this to Disney World; taking a shuttle to an ethnic festival was kind of like taking the Disney bus from your resort to Epcot and entering through the World Showcase!
Location:
Zabawa is located at Holy Trinity Church, 2220 Reed Street, Erie, PA 16503.
Property Description:
This festival in Erie, PA is put on in the parking lot and streets as well as inside of the social hall building itself.
Outdoors, you’ll find food tents, a bandstand, several tables set up to enjoy your food at, and merchandise.
Indoors, you’ll find more food, a bakery, the festival auction, and a 50/50 raffle.
Bathrooms are located inside the Social Center and outside at various Port-a-John locations.
What to Do:
One of the first things you need to know is that you will have to purchase tickets in order to get most of your food and drinks! The food ticket value is 50 cents per ticket.
These tickets can be purchased with cash only, but an ATM is provided in the social hall with a cash withdrawal fee of $3.50.
This festival is for the foodies! If you enjoy Polish food, you’ll find something wonderful to eat here! In the outside food tent, you can grab some potato pancakes or pierogies, as well as french fries, hot dogs, and popcorn. Inside the Polish Food Court, you’ll find bigos (sausage and cabbage), kielbasa wedzona, kielbasa biala, kiszka, golabki (stuffed cabbage rolls), rosol (chicken soup), czarnina (duck soup), kotlet mielone (pork pattie), gulasz (Polish goulash), zrazy (steak wrapped around sausage and a pickle), kapusta, and haluski. Food and drink prices range from 4 tickets ($2) to 26 tickets ($13).
You can also grab some pigs in a blanket at Golabki Express, located in the social center with a separate line from the other food inside!
The Polish Bakery is also indoors, where you can purchase sweet breads, cookies, nut rolls, and more! Bakery prices are marked on the items, and know that both tickets and cash are accepted at the bakery!
If you’re looking for paczki, you’ll find those outside in front of the social center! You can get paczki, paczki sundaes, ice cream, pie, pr pie with ice cream! Next to the paczki, Presque Isle Wine Cellars is selling wine slushies for $8, as well as their delicious wines!
If beer is more of your thing, you can grab one at the beverage tent which is right across from the wine tent. Enjoy draft beers or twisted tea as well as a few Polish beers! You can get a Tyskie (which we tried, it’s a lighter beer), an Okocim/Zywiec/Karpackie (which is a bit darker), or the ZABAWA microbrew. Water and pop are also located within the beverage tent, and coffee is located inside.
If you’re looking for some Polish merchandise, you will find that in the main festival tent which includes a lot of seating (for eating that delicious food), cd’s and tapes, Polish dolls, t-shirts, jewelry, and other really cool souvenirs. The main tent also includes a dance floor! The littles loved dancing to the live Polish music provided by the band on the mainstage!
Who Can Go:
Anyone can enjoy this festival in Erie, PA! Although it got quite crowded outside and inside at times, there is room to navigate a stroller or wheel chair. It does get fairly loud inside and outside at times, so be aware of that if you have anyone who is noise sensitive coming with you.
Final Thoughts:
We really enjoyed Zabawa Polish Festival! We were there at a fairly busy time on a Saturday night, so we spent about 3 hours exploring the festival, considering we waited in a pretty long line inside of the social hall. (We do recommend checking it out at a time that wouldn’t be considered lunch or dinner if you want a quicker line experience!) All in all, we think you should check this out; we’re glad we did and we are excited to go back next year (August 25, 26, and 27, 2023)!
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Wander Erie 