Halupki Festival - Marblehead, Ohio

This post documents my experience on August 21, 2011.

Founded in 1898, the Holy Assumption Orthodox Church is the oldest Orthodox church in Ohio (St. Theodosius in Cleveland was founded earlier but the present church was built after).

And, although it’s a ways up there on the Marblehead Peninsula…

…its definitely worth a visit for its history… .

…its artwork…

…and its halupkis (stuffed cabbage).

Every year, the Holy Assumption Orthodox Church has a one-day festival where they serve “dinners” at lunchtime (11:30 AM – 2 PM) and then ala carte food items from 2:30 – 6 PM…

. …and it’s called the Halupki Festival. .

Along with the church tour seen in the pic posted above, the Halupki Festival has some of your standard festival offerings…

…including a vendor area that sells…

…jewelry, purses and other things…

…jump houses and games for the kids…

…plenty of beer and (soda) pop…

…and a large baked goods tent…

…with some quickly disappearing desserts…

…Russian Orthodox gifts ideas…

…and a raffle.

But none of the previously mentioned things…

…were why all these people were here this day.

For if you watched them as they filled all these tables, you would quickly realize…

…that they were all coming from the ala carte tent.

The ala carte tent is the heart and soul of the Halupki Festival and the reason festival goers should get there fairly early.

But even though there were two lines…

…they were long lines…

…very long lines.

So long that it took me close to 30 minutes to be able to see this.

Not that arriving early would prevent the long wait – some people waited in line before 2:30 just so they wouldn’t have to wait so long when the festival started…meaning they waited even longer as a result of arriving earlier.

But what person in their right mind would put themselves through such torture? you may ask.

But that’s simply the wrong question.

You should be asking, What do these people know that I don’t?

And the answer is simple: with such a large crowd, they could quickly run out of food. You need to get there early if you don’t want your preferred dishes to be gone.

And, if you play it right, you can choose between such dishes as…