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Thank you for visiting! This campaign has concluded, but you can continue to support The Slovak Heritage Festival here.
Western Pennsylvania is home to the highest concentration of people with Slovak ancestry in America and possibly the world, outside of the country of Slovakia. The University of Pittsburgh is the only university in North America where students can take Slovak language and culture classes, and opt to receive a Minor in Slovak Studies.
Since 1990 the University of Pittsburgh has celebrated the endowment of our Slovak program with an annual Slovak heritage festival. It’s the second largest Slovak festival in North America and the only festival to include an academic component. During the festival attendees watch Slovak folk music and dancing, attend lectures and films about Slovak history, language, culture, and genealogy.
We estimate attendance last year was over 3,000 people. In addition to Pitt students, the festival draws people to the Cathedral of Learning from states as far away as Florida and California every year.
This year would have been our 30th year anniversary celebration. But due to COVID-19 we aren’t able to hold the festival in person, we are hoping to celebrate our belated 30th next year. We realized this year might be a good opportunity to showcase what our festival is all about digitally; streaming performances on Facebook and YouTube.
We are planning on premiering the Virtual Slovak Heritage Festival on Sunday, Nov 1st, 1PM EST. We would like to add Slovak subtitles to all English dialogue and English subtitles to all Slovak dialogue. This is a huge undertaking in addition to the editing process, but one we feel is well worth it. Since the video will be archived on YouTube and Facebook, we are hoping the festival will be watched and discovered for years to come by people all across the world. Making the festival bilingual will help expand its reach and allow more people to enjoy it.
Even with our volunteers, the costs to host the online festival are significant. We have to pay our performers and pay for editing, translation and subtitling expenses. We are not able to raise money the way we usually through vendor fees, program advertisements, bake and raffle sales.
Donations of any size will go a long way towards achieving our goal. All donors will be acknowledged in the festival end credits. If you wish to remain anonymous, just indicate that with your donation.
You can expand the reach of our campaign by sharing our EngagePitt page with family and friends or on social media.
You can also help spread awareness of the festival by following and sharing our social media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Finally, you could get a cameo in the festival! This year we are missing the most important part of our annual festival – You.
We’d love to hear from you. Just record a short video greeting on your device, giving a shout out to everyone who will be watching the festival and send it to us. Your video clip could be chosen to play during the virtual festival. You can use it as an opportunity to highlight your Slovak group, your family or your town....etc. You could get creative with it, taking the video by a unique landmark or place with Slovak cultural significance. The more unique and interesting your video clip is, the more likely it will air during the festival.
After you record the video on your phone or other device, send us a download link or email us at SlovakHeritageFestival@gmail.com for a place to upload. The Deadline is Saturday, Oct 10th so submit your video soon!
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Contributions received for this project shall be used in accordance with the purpose described herein, the terms in the FAQs and applicable law. For questions that cannot be answered in the FAQs, please call 412-383-5001 or email engage@pitt.edu.
Your donation will help pay for translation and subtitling costs.
Your donation will help us reach our goals of reaching a worldwide audience.
Your donation will go above and beyond to make this an even greater festival.
