ASHLEY, Pa. — The festival, filled with homemade food, music, and drinks, has been put on by the church for over four decades, and it all starts Friday at 6 p.m.
The tents are set up, and volunteers are packing coolers with soda and preparing a summer festival staple—potato pancakes.
These are the finishing touches for the St. Leo The Great 2024 Summer Festival.
Todd Argenziano, the chair of the festival, notes some of the other foods on the festival menu.
"Homemade piggies or halupki, homemade pancakes, sauce and sandwiches, and a bunch of other food to enjoy."
Those volunteers will be serving up some of the festival's most anticipated foods, such as their award-winning perogies made at the church in Ashley.
Argenziano says volunteers have been working for two weekends to make over 3,000 perogies leading up to the festival, a tradition that has held up over the years.
The festival will also have plenty of games for kids, plus bingo and basket raffles.
"It's nice. Everybody comes out, all the parishioners, the community, everybody from Ashley, Sugar Notch, Warrior Run, Hanover Township, Wilkes-Barre, and Mountaintop," said Jack Boyle, a volunteer at the festival since 2018. "It's a nice get-together."
In addition to those award-winning pierogies, the festival will have live music all weekend. The band Strawberry Jam will play on Friday night, and Hangin' With F.O.G. will play on Saturday night.
The fun kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday in Luzerne County at St. Leo's Holy Rosary Church.