PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The annual St. Joseph's Polish Picnic will be serving up thousands of pierogies and gallons of kapusta this Sunday. 

 

Held on the church grounds at 414 North St., it runs from noon to 5 p.m. and is free to the public.

 

The Polish picnic is one of the last ethnic festivals in the Berkshires, and the event is expected to draw several thousand people.

 

"It's not just for Polish people. I mean, it draws all kinds of people to the event, and it's for the non-Polish people, who this is the one time a year that they can try that kind of food," said volunteer Peter Lafayette. "If you go to these different ethnic festivals, and it's just you're tasting food that you don't normally have. So, so that's a treat."

 

The event was originally held by Holy Family Church and continued on once it merged with St. Joseph's.

 

"It started at Holy Family Church in Pittsfield, which was originally a Polish parish, and they started to have this festival each year," Lafayette said. "And then the Holy Family Church merged with St Joseph's Church, I think, about 12 or 13 years ago, and one of the things that they wanted to do was to maintain this tradition."

 

Now the tradition has been carried on for more than 60 years.

 

"There is a core group of people from the original Polish parish whose parents worked the festival, and it was always a big homecoming weekend for people from that parish who moved away, and it still is," he said. "So that's one of the incentives or motivations that keep it alive. And then it moved kind of into the merge of the other parish, which I belong to, a lot of non-Polish people. ...

 

"We all became kind of Polish people for a week, or at least that day. And so we help out to keep it alive, and it's a lot of fun bringing people together."

 

Lafayette said parish volunteers started in May making the pierogies every Saturday. They make around 5,000 pierogies, 2,800 golumbki, and 8 gallons of kapusta.

 

An outdoor Polish Mass will kick off the festivities at 11 a.m. Eddie Forman Orchestra will play Polish music at 1 p.m. and "KiddyLand" will provide games and activities for children. Raffles will also be available for adults.