Turning the pages back...

June 9, 1974

On June 9, 1974, a record-breaking crowd well in excess of 8,000 - an unprecedented feat in the history of the state of New Jersey - was present at the first Ukrainian Festival staged at the Garden State Arts Center.

People of all ages and walks of life from virtually every center of Ukrainian life on the Eastern Seaboard, as well as many non-Ukrainians, filled to overflowing not only the 5,000-seat amphitheater - which was sold out two weeks in advance - but also the grassy knolls surrounding the huge arena.

Blessed with fine, sunny weather, the festival comprised a morning program on the mall, daylong exhibits of folk arts and crafts, as well as modern Ukrainian painting, and an afternoon program of music, songs and dances on the huge stage of the amphitheater.

Among those featured in the program were: Voloshky, the folk dancing ensemble from Philadelphia; the vocal trio Troyanda; Jersey City's Cheremosh dancers; as well as a show of historical costumes of Ukraine by SUM and Plast members.

The four-hour program had the festival-goers lingering around the spacious Garden State Arts Center long after it was over. The large crowd of people dispersed only reluctantly, wanting to stay around and share in the buoyancy that the day had genereated.

It was late into the evening when the last of the thousands of cars took to the now crowded Parkway. With Ukrainian stickers on the cars and Ukrainian festival banners flying in the wind it was a Ukrainian-dominated tollway, as was the Arts Center earlier that day.

Source: "Ukrainian Festival in New Jersey Is a Smashing Success; Show of Ukrainian Culture Attracts Record Crowd of Over 8,000," The Ukrainian Weekly, June 15, 1974.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 3, 2001, No. 22, Vol. LXIX

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