Pierogi Fest Celebrates Starchy Goodness

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jul 27, 2012 7:40PM

Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist

One of our favorite festivals in the Chicago area started a few hours ago. Pierogi Fest takes over the main strip of Whiting, Ind. all weekend, celebrating the Central/Eastern European dumpling in all its traditional forms, and a few non-traditional. (Trust us: don’t get the taco pierogi.)

Load up on pierogi from a host of vendors, take in some live music and dancing, cool off with a cold beer in the festivals beer garden, and feel free to participate in pierogi eating and tossing contests. It would seem that one leads to the other, but they are separate.

The highlight of today’s Pierogi Fest schedule is the International Polka Parade down 119th Street at 7 p.m. The parade is a campy affair with dancing babushkas, a lawn mower drill team, the Pierogi Queen and the “world’s original Lazy Boy float.”

Scores of people bike to Whiting for Pierogi Fest. If you plan on doing so take this one bit of advice: don’t load up on pierogi. You’ll bonk hard on the way back to Chicago.