CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The St. Ludmila Kolach Festival plans a return next weekend after a one-year hiatus.
Set for June 7-9, 2024, at St. Ludmila Catholic Church, 211 21st Ave. SW, the longtime festival features kolaches, a fruit-filled Czech pastry.
Last year, 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 will be baked.
Read more: Kolach Festival on hold in Cedar Rapids
In recent years, volunteers have baked an average of 5,500 dozen, or 66,000 kolaches, for the festival, which began in 1938. This year, organizers plan to offer kolaches with prune, apricot, apple, rhubarb, poppyseed, strawberry and cherry fillings.
See photos from the 2019 kolache bake.
The 2024 festival will run 5-9 p.m. Friday, June 7; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 8, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, June 9.
Kolaches, at $18 per dozen or $9 for a half-dozen and $2 single, will be sold during festival hours and during drive-throughs from 6-9 a.m. June 7 and 8, or until they are sold out.
Activities include a Kiddieland, raffle, silent auction, beer and wine garden and live entertainment by Nate Hines / Johnson Trio; Skeeter Louis All-Stars and Barefoot Becky & the Ivanhoe Dutchmen.
See photos from a past Kolach Festival and find the full schedule for this year’s festival on the St. Ludmila website.
Kolaches look yummy. Love the costumes!