Even without American Idol winner Maddie Poppe, this year’s Market After Dark was expected to attract 30,000 people to downtown Cedar Rapids. While attendance numbers will be available later, crowds consistent with the past few years jammed the streets to visit vendors and buy beverages and food during the nighttime farmers market. View photos of […]
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Earth, Wind and Fire (and lightning) and...
DES MOINES – A thunderstorm that rumbled through central Iowa on Thursday, Aug. 16, resulted in a one-hour delay for the Earth, Wind & Fire concert at the Iowa State Fair. Opening act Sinbad started off the grandstand event, but audience members began to peel off as lightning began encroaching on the fairgrounds. After the […]
Kolache quest at Clutier Czech Day in Io...
CLUTIER, Iowa – There was a time when nearly every Czech American family had someone in the household who could bake kolaches and rohlicky. That can no longer be taken for granted. Even at today’s Czech Day festival in Clutier, kolaches were a cherished rarity. One batch of the cherry, apricot, prune and poppyseed varieties […]
Demonstrators protest VP Pence visit to ...
CEDAR RAPIDS – Demonstrators braved sweltering heat Wednesday to protest Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids. Nearly 100 people stood across the street from the headquarters of the largest employer in the city while Pence, accompanied by U.S. Rep. Rod Blum (R-IA,) spoke to workers inside. Less than a handful […]
Photos: Kolache baking and tour of Bohem...
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Czech School students learned how to bake kolaches today, with help from the expert kolache-makers from St. Monica’s Circle at St. Wenceslaus Church. Students rolled balls of the dough, used a glass to form a perfect circle in the center and filled the dough with poppyseed, cherry, apricot and prune filling, […]
Photos: Czech School students learn art ...
Master Czech Folk Artist, Marj Nejdl of Cedar Rapids, led the older division Czech School students through the steps of kraslice, the art of decorating eggs. Students learned how to use wax and dye to create designs and layers of color and even how to blow the yolk out of the eggs, at the Glovik […]
Photos: Opening day at the Downtown Farm...
CEDAR RAPIDS – Organizers of the Downtown Farmers Market pushed the opening day of 2018 into May, instead of June, but the season was still off to a sultry start on Saturday, May 26. Shade and a light breeze made temperatures that soared into the 90s tolerable and market vendors saw steady crowds. Those selling […]
Photos: Houby Days 2018 in Cedar Rapids,...
CEDAR RAPIDS – It was nearly a clean sweep in the morel contest during this year’s Houby Days, a three-day festival that celebrates the springtime mushroom and the city’s Czech heritage. Mike Haugsted of Cedar Rapids won the largest, smallest and best mushroom displays in the annual contest. Brody Driscoll of Hiawatha broke Haugsted’s streak […]
Photos: EcoFest 2018
CEDAR RAPIDS – More than 2,000 visitors took a shuttle to the top of Mount Trashmore to see views of the city during EcoFest. With an elevation of 948 feet, the man-made peak is the highest point in Linn County, offering stunning views of downtown Cedar Rapids and surrounding areas. Originally a quarry, the site […]
Iowa dance hall owners quash closing rum...
WALFORD – Rumors of their wedding hall/ballroom being sold or closed were just that: rumors, said Paul and Connie Louis, co-owners since 2003 of the Ponderosa Ballroom in Walford, Iowa. The two addressed the gossip Sunday, March 18, 2018, during the Czech Heritage Foundation’s St. Joseph’s Day Dance, a longtime annual tradition at the hall. […]