The week of Aug. 24 through Aug. 30, the city of Pittsburg, KS hosted their 40th annual Little Balkan’s Days. The events ranged from a quilt show, several food-based events, live music, train rides, and the too popular Arts & Crafts & Food Fair hosted in Lincoln Park.
President of the Little Balkan’s Days Association, Angela Meyer, shed some light on the background of why Little Balkan’s Days is held every year.
It was originally meant to “build on Bev Cochran’s Folk Life Festival, and was designed to be fine art driven, handicraftsmen, a lot of what you see at Silver Dollar City,” Meyer said. It was also “designed to celebrate the mining history, the immigrant history of the heritage.”
For those reasons, they hosted live music groups who performed genres like polka, zydeco Cajun music from Louisiana, Slovenian folk music, and more to celebrate some of the many immigrant histories tied into the area. Not only has music reflected some of that history, but they also teach several different food classes throughout the festival to bring back some of that culture to anyone wanting to learn. Some of the foods taught were French cookies, pasta from scratch, Swedish crepes, and salsa from scratch.
Several groups were invited to perform live during the craft fair, two of them being Bill and Monica’s Excellent Adventure and the ABLeS. Bill and Monica’s Excellent Adventure have performed on campus before as well as all over town for several years and were invited to play this year. Stacy Struble, the lead singer of Bill and Monica’s Excellent Adventure, as well as the rest of the group are all educators in this area.
Struble said her favorite part of performing at the festival was “seeing all the kids that are here and so excited,” and watching “parents have to chase their kids from trying to come on stage.” She went on to say that it not only meant a lot to her as an educator to see all those kids so excited, but “all the little girls that were so excited to see a female up there” on the stage meant a lot to her.
Mia Perry is a student at Pittsburg State University studying English and Creative Writing as a senior, but she is also from around here.
Perry said she “had always loved this event” since she was little, and while not coming every year, it is close. Perry went on to say that the food and the people were some things she always looked forward to. Joining her was her guide dog, Melon, who is still learning the ropes of her new job but doing well according to Perry.
As Meyer had said, the festival was based around celebrating history and handicraftsmen. Sylvia Augustine was at the arts and crafts fair selling her handmade crochet stuffed animals at the fair for the first time. Augustine is from the Independence, MO area, and got her start in her craft as part of her physical therapy following some surgeries she had, and her small business has only grown ever since she started going to craft fairs to sell her projects. Starting that morning, there was a small rack near the entrance of her tent where she had presented some new small stuffed animals, and according to her, it started out completely full. By noon it was already almost empty of how popular they had been. Small businesses, the communities, and good food have been the heart of both the area and this festival, and it shows.