The traditional “Pysanka Festival” was held in Los Angeles at the Ukrainian Art Center Los Angeles, which this year was held for the 15th time. The event brought together the Ukrainian community, artists and guests, combining a cultural program, a fair and charitable initiatives in support of Ukraine.
This was reported journalist Anna Matviyishinareports this from the scene.
“This year, about 40 vendors are participating in the festival, dance and choral groups, solo singers and singers are presenting their art, up to a thousand visitors are expected. They are offered a variety of handmade products: jewelry, embroidery, paintings, motanka dolls, Easter eggs, various delicacies, smoked meats, pastries, special bread and even vegan tea,” the post says. йдеться у дописі.
According to her, the organizer was the Ukrainian Art Center Los Angeles. According to its chairman, Daria Chaykovska, this year the festival was attended by about 40 vendors, and in total, up to a thousand guests visited the event.
An important part of the program were master classes in Easter egg making. They were conducted by artist Barbara Wetzel. She is originally from Massachusetts, has Ukrainian roots, and has been teaching how to make Easter eggs for over 30 years. родом з Масачусетса, має українське коріння, й вже понад 30 років навчає робити писанки.
The festival also had food zones, where Ukrainian dishes were offered, in particular, by Post Angeles and Easy Busy Meals.
“And what a fair is without delicious Ukrainian food! Post Angeles and Easy Busy Meals feed festival guests with traditional Ukrainian dishes. A long line forms at the food truck with “Ukrainian street food”. It disappears only when chef Yevhen Skalozub announces that cheesecakes, Odesa shawarma, dumplings with cabbage, cherries, cheese, mushroom soup and deruny are over. According to the girls who made the dumplings themselves, there were about one and a half thousand of them. Only he knows how many shawarma Zhenya made, but you have to count them in dozens,” the report says.
Special attention was paid to the charity component. According to the founder of Go Ukraina Olena Simakovska, 100% of the funds from the sale of food from the food truck will be directed to the prosthetics of veteran Dmytro Rybachenko.
“Дмитро Рибаченко “Dmytro Rybachenko represented Ukraine in February of this year at the Wounded Warrior Trials at Camp Pendleton and won two gold medals in swimming and three silver medals in wheelchair rugby and indoor rowing.
Entrepreneurs from Lviv, who sell charming glass houses, say they also brought items to the auction. All proceeds will go to the Pokrova Lviv Amp Football project, which takes care of veterans with amputees,” the journalist adds.
Among the guests of the festival was the family of Ethan Gertwek, an American volunteer, a Marine who died defending Ukraine in 2023.
“Farewell to him on Independence Square in Kyiv was remembered by many, it flew around the columns of the world media,” the report notes.
“And the head of the Art Center, Ms. Daria, dreams of one day opening a Ukrainian Museum – a complex that would combine cultural heritage and contemporary Ukrainian art,” summarized Hanna Matviyishyna.
Photo: Hanna Matviyishyna
Prepared by: Inna Mikhno