CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The long-running St. Ludmila Kolach Festival, typically held in early June, is scheduled this year for June 20-22.
Kolaches, a favorite fruit-filled Czech pastry, are the highlight of the festival, which takes place on the church grounds at 211 21st Ave. SW.
See photos from a past kolache bake.
The 2025 festival is set for 5-9 p.m. Friday, June 20; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 21; and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, June 22.
In addition, “drive-up” kolaches will be available from 6-9 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.
Volunteers will bake 40,000 to 50,000 kolaches with prune, apricot, apple, rhubarb, poppyseed, strawberry and cherry fillings at $18 per dozen or $9 for a half-dozen.
St. Ludmila Catholic Church established its Kolach Festival in 1938 in Cedar Rapids. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
The festival, which began in 1938, also features live music; a silent auction; teen zone; family fun zone; beer and wine garden; a concession, raffles and more.
Another highlight this year will be a polka Mass with music by Barefoot Becky, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Sunday, followed by a pork and dumpling dinner.
In 2023, the parish temporarily suspended the festival as it demolished its 1958-built elementary school in order to construct a new parish center, which includes an industrial kitchen where the kolaches are now baked.
Earlier this year, the parish also demolished its mid-Century convent.
Read more: Convent by acclaimed architect razed in Cedar Rapids
The convent provided 16 bedrooms, two dining rooms, a music room, chapel and a community room for the Sisters of Notre Dame who taught at St. Ludmila School. The nuns had previously lived in a farmhouse they purchased in 1914, when they moved to Iowa from what was then Czechoslovakia.
In preparing for demolition, a time capsule was discovered when the cornerstone was removed, which was opened last fall in Omaha, Nebraska, where the retired Notre Dame nuns are living.
See: Contents of time capsule unveiled
Thanks for the info, keep up the good work.
For future reference, kolach is singular and kolache is plural. Adding the s at the end is not correct.
There is also Czech Days in Tabor, SD this weekend