Cedar Polka Fest

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It’s polka time again in Cedar

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The show must go on—and it will once again as Cedar celebrates its Polish heritage with the 42nd annual Cedar Polka Fest. With several bands playing variants on the polka theme, plus the Scottville Clown Band putting its own musical spin on the proceedings, the town will once again be dancing up a storm from Thursday, Aug. 22 through Sunday, Aug. 25. This year’s lineup includes Alex Meixner on Thursday and Friday; Bavarski, Friday-Sunday; Dynabrass, Thursday and Friday; Duane Malinowski on Saturday; Larry and his Larks Saturday and Sunday; and the Scottville Clown Band Saturday in the parade and again afterwards. Lisa Rossi-Brett, the executive director of the Cedar Polka Fest Foundation, says determining the bands is always a balancing act between favorites from years past and newcomers. “We try within reason to change bands,” she says. But the presence of beloved bands from past years is always welcomed.

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Cedar Polka Fest crowns first-ever princes and princesses

This year’s Cedar Polka Fest boasts something new — a Junior Royalty court. Two first graders from each Leelanau County public school, as well as Lake Leelanau St. Mary, are represented as princes and princesses to promote this year’s festival, which is scheduled for August 24-27. They’ll ride in the Polka Fest parade on Saturday, Aug. 26, at 12:30 pm.

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Cedar Polka Fest turns 40

The 40th annual Cedar Polka Fest returns to the “community that cares” in the heart of Leelanau County, August 25-28. The festival celebrates Cedar’s rich Polish history, lasts four days and nights, and attracts nearly 10,000 people for family fun. Visit the Polka Fest to eat, drink, and dance the nights away.

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Cedar polka dances again

The gas pump speakers at Bunting’s Cedar Market play the polka favorite “Roll out the barrel.” A new sign on the side of the building reads “Welcome to Cedar. Hometown of Rifino Valentine,” an homage to the Valentine Detroit spirits maker. Down by the ballfields, the massive 120 x 270 square-foot white tent is up and ready for crowds. And Srodek’s has arrived from the Polish Detroit enclave of Hamtramck with a wagon full of the best Kielbasa and Pierogis this side of the Atlantic. Cedar Polka Fest is back!

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Cedar Polka Fest canceled for 2020

Board members of the Cedar Polka Fest decided during their meeting last night to cancel the annual festival, which had been moved from mid-June to September in hopes that the COVID-19 global pandemic would be under control by then. Instead Coronavirus infections are rising in much of the United States and spreading through parts of Leelanau County.

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Cedar’s Polka Fest embraces roots with native son’s Valentine Vodka, Polish beer

Polka Fest has fresh legs this year. For the first time, Michigan-made vodka and Polish beer will be served in Cedar. Native son Rifino Valentine, who developed the wildly successful, high-quality Valentine Vodka spirits brand in Detroit, will return “home” and toast to his roots. Cedar has an energetic new booster in Kathleen Bittner Koch, a 37-year-old Hamtramck native who moved here five years ago to buy a farm.

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Celebrating Polish Heritage on the Farm

Pigs, goats, chickens, guinea hens, ducks, cats, and a couple small children roam the pastures, pathways, and vegetable patch of the Polish Heritage Farm in Cedar. “We came up five years ago [from Hamtramck, a Detroit neighborhood]. We had this vision: doing a farm and raising our kids on a farm, knowing where their food came from,” bubbles Kathleen Bittner Koch.

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Larry Bruckner: Cedar’s volunteer behind Polka Fest

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If you’ve ever wondered how the Cedar Polka Fest, a Cedar Chamber of Commerce event that attracts as many as 8,000 people over four days, is organized, look no further than the community — and to volunteers such as 82-year-old Larry Bruckner. “Mr. B,” as he is often called, a Cedar Chamber of Commerce member, has been volunteering with the Polka Fest for at least 15 years, by his estimate. “I haven’t worked since the beginning of the festival,” he said. “That was in 1975. The first few festivals were for the community to get together and raise a little hell,” he added. “But then we were getting so many people that it had to be more organized.”

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Going Polish at Duneswood

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Cedar’s Polka Fest isn’t the only Polish attraction in these woods. The Duneswood Resort along M-109, and right on the popular new leg of the Sleeping Hear Heritage Trail, is a hit with Poles from Detroit and Chicago, and even Warsaw and Krakow. Owner Debbie Rettke began displaying a Polish flag along M-109 last summer because she had employees from the central European nation. Lo and behold, people began pulling off the road to ask her (she recalled in a pronounced Polish accent), “What do you have my flag here for?”

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For the love of Cedar

The woman behind the free dance lessons at Polka Fest in Cedar, Michigan, is Beverly Jane (“BJ”) Christensen, a feisty woman with piercing blue eyes. In 2001, Christensen founded the Cedar Area Community Foundation, an organization that offers free, fun activities for all ages year round, from service events like outdoor clean ups and CPR classes to self-improvement activities such as walking groups and aerobics. Also on the calendar are kayak trips down the Victoria River, ice cream socials, crafting events and holiday parties—as well as the Polka Fest fun.

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